Operation: FlameOut
by Yellow 13
Summary: another part in my series. takes place after Operation: Dark Strike. Bird Dog, almost finished with his werewolf training, heads back to Moscow, and things take a turn for the worse. my first story of this type, please go easy on it.
1. Return to Moscow

Operation: Flame-Out

Captain Patrick "Bird Dog" Roy

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

New York State

1145 Hours local

September, 16, 2006

My training as a werewolf was going fairly well, at least according to Jeremy, the Pack Alpha. I had just finished eating when Elena (the only female werewolf) called me to the phone.

"He says that you know him," she said handing the phone to me. "He calls himself 'Tombstone'? Does that mean anything to you?"

It did, Tombstone was Donald Scully's official Callsign, although, he rarely used when flying. People feared his squadron designation: Mobius 1.

"What's the gouge, Stony?" I asked. Stony was short for 'Tombstone'. Probably because his face was so hard and expressionless that it reminded people of a tombstone. The gouge is military for 'what's up?'

"Oh nothing much," he replied. "Just that we're about to do some test flights on two new aircraft."

"Really? Interesting… what's their designation? Maybe I've heard of them before."

"I doubt it. These are completely new airframes designed by North Osea Grunder Industries."

Grunder Industries, the biggest aircraft manufacturing company in the world. As soon as Grunder became established, it's planes where shipped to all over the world.

"These planes," he continued. "One of these new planes is a variant of a design they already used. It's known as the ADF-02 'Angel'. Tests on the initial prototype say that it can withstand almost anything short of a super weapon strike. It's like the ADFX-02 in a couple of ways, now that I think about it."

"When are the first test flights?" I asked.

"In about two days. Oh, and by the way, are you going to be coming back to the Air Force anytime soon?"

"We'll see, Stony. We'll see." And I hung up.

Of course, I couldn't just disappear for a few days, so I had to tell Jeremy about it.

He considered it, and agreed to let me go see it. Naturally, I wouldn't be going alone, Elena would be coming with me as a temporary vacation away from Clay.

The two of us arrived in Moscow the next day after about five hours of flying, which made me nervous as hell. As a combat pilot, I HATE flying as a passenger. After we got out of customs and out of the airport altogether, I started acting like a tour guide, pointing out famous landmarks such as the Kremlin Walls, the Red Square, Moscow River, and others. When we got to the base, I showed my ID, and was let in.

We got to the hangers when I saw someone in a flight suit walking over towards us. I waved him over to us.

"Well, well, well," he said. "Bird Dog, it's good to see you again!" Tombstone said.

"Likewise, Stony," I said. "So, where are these new toys you told me about over the phone?"

"I'll have you know that these are NOT toys. These are highly advanced prototype combat aircraft."

I chuckled and said: "until they get into the air, Stony, that's all they are."

We went inside the hanger to where the two planes where being kept. The ADF-02 looked very similar to the ADF-01, except it was slightly bigger. _Probably, _I thought. _To accommodate more weapons. _It was also a slivery-grey colour, very close to what Solider-style aces use on there FALKEN. Mercenaries use a blue camouflage scheme, while Knight Aces use a light green camouflage scheme.

"The reason why it's so shiny like that," Tombstone explained. "Is because Grunder is using a new technology on it. Ever hear of 'adaptive camouflage?"

"Yeah, but I though that was years away from being operational."

"You'd be surprised. Apparently, the Brotherhood of Nod is loaning Grunder the technology they use in there Stealth tanks. Grunder makes planes with this, and gives a sample of the profits to Kane. While at the same time, Kane makes more money from airplanes, and begins selling this to Navel shipyards to make stealthy ships and subs. pretty cool huh?"

I had to admit, it WAS a neat concept, and I could certainly see an advantage of using this technology on non-stealthy aircraft. As good as the SU-37 'Terminator' was, it could still be improved by some form of stealth function.

Elena was completely bewildered at our conversation. Being a civilian who had never flown in combat before, what Tombstone and I where talking about must have seemed like a completely different language to her.

Supreme Commander Boris Romanov walked in while I was busy doing a hands-on inspection of the X-03 'Dragon' the other experimental plane. This one was all black, and looked like a cross between the F-14 'Tomcat' and the X-02 'Wyvern'. In fact, I was almost positive I had seen this design before.

"We found the blueprints for this aircraft in a warehouse for aircraft that never made it into production." He said. "The original plans called it the XFA-27. For whatever reason, despite outstanding performance characteristics, it was scrapped." He shrugged.

Then, another man walked in. this one, I (like everyone else on the base) knew him only as 'Yuri'. I kicked myself mentally for not remembering him. Yuri was THE most powerful psychic in any universe. He went over to the Commander and started whispering. My enhanced hearing picked up only a few words Yuri's report.

"Commander… problem… Werewolves… continue… my office."

The Commander turned towards me, and I snapped to attention.

"We'll discuss this later, Captain." He said in a low and dangerous voice.

"Yessir," was all I could say to that. The Commander left with Yuri, Elena looked at me, and said: "what was that about?"


	2. Found Out

Chapter (2)

Supreme Commander Boris Romanov

Yuri's office

The Kremlin, Moscow

1210 hours local

"You seriously expect me to believe this bullshit, Yuri!?" I yelled.

Yuri went looked around inside his desk, pulled out a bottle of vodka and poured us each a glass. We each drained it in one gulp, (as is the proper way to drink vodka.) before he continued.

"Comrade Commander, I'm telling you the truth. The two of them-"

I cut him off and said: "wait just one damn minute, since when are there TWO werewolves in our base?!"

"That Elena Michaels woman Yuri said. "She is also a werewolf. In fact, she's the only female werewolf of that universe. If you don't believe me, why don't you ask them yourself?"

I sighed, and left Yuri's office. I went into my own office and started to fill the paperwork that was accumulating on my desk. Once I got it to a reasonably small pile, I called my aide, who in turn called Bird Dog and Elena to my office.

Bird Dog was fixed at attention, his eyes locked on a spot of the wood paneling somewhere behind my left shoulder. Elena looked slightly confused and sat down.

"Captain Roy," I said. "Have a seat." He hesitated, and then sat down.

"Sir, I can explain this," Bird Dog said. He started to explain. At least until Elena jabbed him in the gut with her elbow.

Bird Dog seemed to ignore me and said to Elena: "they're going to find out sooner or later. It would be better if they heard it from an officer first then to find out for themselves."

After an inner struggle within her, she let him continue. After he was finished, I said: "very well, I will allow you two to walk around the base. Elena, you will need to take this." I pulled out a security Level One key card. "That will get you into most of the declassified areas of this base."

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

Vladimir Air Force Base

1835 hours

My heart sank as I entered my quarters. A woman was sitting on my bed waiting for me. She had shoulder-length jet black hair, and was wearing, like most pilots, a drab olive colour flight suit. I knew this woman. This was Sarah Nakano, 'Tomboy' to her squadron-mates, and a deep personal friend of mine. I had known her since War Collage in Erusia when I was first starting to fly and I had started to develop feelings for her. She was rotated to my squadron as a replacement for Yellow 4 when she was shot down and killed by Mobius 1 over Stonehenge.

She didn't look particularly pleased to see me.

"Tomboy, what are you doing here?" I said, slightly alarmed at seeing her there.

"I want to talk to you, Bird Dog." She said. "What the hell do you think you're doing!? You get shot down, and then spend months god-knows-where, and then you tell the Commander you quit the Air Force!?"

A passing corpsman knocked on the door and told us to keep it down in there. She lowered her voice to normal speaking tones.

"Look, Tomboy, I haven't quit the Air Force. At least, not yet. But something came up when I was shot down. It wasn't that I lost the edge, but it's something else. I take it the Commander hasn't told you yet?"

She shook her head.

I sighed; this was going to be difficult for me and her. I rolled up my left shirt sleeve to expose the bite scar where the Mutt had taken a bite out of me and turned me into a werewolf shortly afterwards.

"That's it?" Tomboy asked in disbelief. "One little dog bite and you stay grounded for months? I mean, I know you can't stand to be attacked on the ground, but one little bite? Come on!"

"Tomboy, I'm going to show you something, but you have to promise me that you won't scream."

She looked at me, confused then said: "what's going on, Bird Dog?"

I then did a Pack trick: Changing only one part of our body, In this case, my left arm. I wasn't perfect at it yet, but I knew how to do it.

As my arm changed, Tomboy was simply staring at it, not believing what she was seeing. Before I became a werewolf, I generally sucked at sensing people's emotions. A major reason for that is because when flying in combat, you need to put all emotions away, as well as everything else not connected with the mission. Now that I was a werewolf, emotions where practically laid bare to me, and at the moment, Tomboy's was terrified, even if she didn't show it.

As soon as my arm was fully wolf, I Changed it back, and said: "that's what happened to me. I was, as crazy as this sounds, bitten by a werewolf." And I begun to explain what happened. When I was done, she looked on the verge of passing out, screaming at the top of her lungs, or somehow, both at the same time.

She didn't do any of those things. Instead, she stood up and picked up a model of an SU-37, replaced it, and looked at me with a trace of loss in her eyes.

"You know Tomboy, if you want to end our relationship here, I'll understand."

She walked over to me, hugged and whispered: "other couples have worse problems. I think we can make this work."

"Thanks," I whispered back.

There are some things about my wolf nature that I simply can't fight. (A few of those things somehow though got meshed into my military life. I guess because they're so similar.) Relationships are one of those things. Hereditary werewolves can somehow fight off that particular instinct, but for Clay, Elena and me, the instinct is simply too strong to fight.

You see, wolves are normally monogamous, meaning they have only one mate for life. I loved her, but nothing could prepare either of us for what was fast approaching, even though neither of us knew it.


	3. Vladimir Air force base

Chapter 3

Elena Michaels

Hanger Four

Vladimir Air force base

1850 hours local

I was taking a look at some of the other planes that the Air Force had. The one I was looking at would have fit well in the night. It was jet black with a few streaks of red along the center and on the edges. The planes engines where huge. I could have easily fit into one of them standing straight up. The emblem on the tail had a red skull with some kind of yellow serpent-thing coming out of the skull's mouth and eyes, with another grey larger serpent-thing coming around the skull and looking about to swallow the yellow serpent-thing. The identification said: 'SCHWARZE SQUADRON -- 13th Night Fighter Air Division / 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron'

"You like my bird?" someone asked. I spun around, surprised. _How the hell did he manage to sneak up on me? _I wondered.

This guy had a lot of facial hair, and didn't look to be that strong, but he was wearing that same drab green colour 'flight suit' as Bird Dog had called it. He held out his hand and said: "Captain Dominic Zubov."

I reluctantly shook his hand and said: "Elena Michaels."

"Nice to meet you," he said. "You're new here." That wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Yeah, I'm new here. How'd you-"

"If you weren't new here, you'd already know me. Or at least you'd know what people call me."

"What do they call you?"

He smiled and said: "people call me 'the Vulture' among other things."

There was a long silence that followed, save for the aircraft being launched on the runway, and then he said: "so, who's your flight lead?"

"Actually, I'm not in the Air Force. Or the military for that matter."

"Oh… well, if you DO join let me know what squadron you end up in."

We both left the hanger. Dominic however took off in his plane and went for some kind of mission.

I went to Bird Dog's room (or Quarters, as the base personnel called it) and knocked.

"Come in," he said as I opened the door. He was filling out a few forms of something, he looked up and said: "oh, hey Elena. What's up?"

"I just wanted to ask you if you where planning on joining the Air Force again.

He shrugged, and said: "well, technically, I never left. That's why I'm doing this" he gestured at the paperwork on his desk. "All this is backlog stuff. Anyways, I still have a lot of years of flight time left in me. I'm 27, and for a fighter pilot, that's in his or her prime."

I nodded and said: you know you're going to have to tell Jeremy about this."

"Yeah, I know."

As if on cue, Jeremy contacted us telepathically that night. The 'connection' was a little fuzzy though. Almost like using a cell phone in a building, now weather that was from that Yuri guys own psychic powers disrupting it, the distance between us all, the fact that he was trying something that he never tried before (contacting more then one of us at one time) or some combination of the three, I'll never know, but he did a good job with it.

Jeremy was a bit worried about Bird Dog going back into active combat again, what a little incident last year that had dropped out numbers to five, and Jeremy was not keen on losing one that he just gained, if only through sheer coincidence. So, he made me join as well. I was the most logical bet because I got along with him fairly well, and for another thing, Antonio and Nick where busy with their business and Clay… well, he didn't get along with Bird Dog, and had absolutely no desire to join an organization that was completely human.

Don't get me wrong, I also didn't want to join because werewolves don't use guns. We just don't. Although, Bird Dog said that in an aircraft, you KNOW you are killing people, but it doesn't FEEL like you are. That plane over there? It's just a target and the crew are incidental matters. It's the same with ground targets, you know you are dropping bombs, and you know that they're blowing up, and you know you are killing people, but from where you are, you can't see them.

Now, if that sounds cruel, inhuman or just wrong, well… it can't be helped. That's simply the cold, hard truth.

Supreme Commander Romanov

Bear Valley, New York State

1833 Hours Local

I was going to Stonehaven again. This time, assuming Yuri's information was accurate, to let Jeremy Danvers know that we had found out about them. It was a dangerous idea as again, assuming Yuri was right, they could easily kill me. However, to prevent that, I was going along with a team of Cossack Spetsnaz. Spetsnaz are one type of Special Forces. The other type is KGB Operatives. Cossacks, however usually make the best of both Special Forces. If anyone can keep a person alive in even the toughest types of terrain, a Cossack can.

The Mi-24 'Hind' helicopter Gunship landed and we all got out. Of course, Clayton Danvers was there to 'greet' us, but he was turned away by my guards.

Jeremy was in his study when I walked in. he looked up, met my eyes, but I couldn't read his expression.

"Commander," he said formally. "What brings you here again so soon after our last meeting?"

"According to one of my top Psychics, Captain Patrick Roy and Elena Michaels have certain… anomalies in them. I wanted to ask you if that was true."

I could tell that he was slightly confused at the way I worded my question, but he caught on and said: "I see, what are the nature of these 'anomalies'?"

"Our psychics picked up… well, even they have no idea what it is, but it is giving them cause for concern."

"I see…"

I was going around the question, I knew, but what I was hoping for was that he would reveal the information I wanted without realising it. Unfortunately for me though, he seemed to know his way around answering questions. I knew from background checks that he once worked as a translator, although I didn't check out where exactly he once worked. _Possibly for the United Nations… _I thought.

Eventually, after going around the question so many times that I felt like I was right back where I started, I decided to come right out with it.

"Our Psychics told us that Captain Roy and Elena Michaels are werewolves. They didn't tell us very much, only that they have a Pack of sorts, and that you are the leader of said Pack."

His expression was unreadable again, and Clayton came into the room.

"Clay…" Jeremy warned.

He looked at my guards that had surrounded me. One look from them said that he'd be dead long before he could lay a finger on me.

"In case you are thinking of killing me," I said. "I also have an extremely powerful Spy/Attack satellite watching my movements all day. If you kill me, the Satellite will see it and open fire. It is extremely precise, and it can annihilate this house in less then a second."

That was both true and false. The Satellite I mentioned could not attack, but it WAS a spy satellite and an extremely powerful one at that. It could literally view a small game of chess and determine what the next move should be, even if the game was being played at the deepest played at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. So, in a sense, I was calling their bluff, while at the same time telling the truth, if that makes any sense. So even though it couldn't fire anything, it could direct something else to fire.

Clayton cast a hard glance my way and left, slamming the door shut behind him.

There was a lengthy silence between us, and then Jeremy said: "because you now know about us, you will probably find out about the other races too. There is an Interracial Counsel meeting in the next few days. I'll tell the delegates that you will also be there."

"'Interracial Counsel'?" I asked. "What's that?"

"It's the supernatural version of the United Nations. The meeting will be in three days, in the town of Long Bay. I'll give you a map so you won't get lost."

I reluctantly took the map, even though I could have a satellite easily find the town, and have a Chronosphere teleport me there, all in less then a second or two.

I left shortly afterwards. The trip back to Moscow was as easy as it was leaving it. A time-space portal (as our Officers call it) opened, and sucked the craft in, transporting it through time and space to appear over Moscow. The time of travel is less then one second when traveling in this way, although the first time you try it, you get a little nauseous.

Once I was back in my office, my aide called.

"Sir," he said. "You told me to notify you when Captain Roy got back on active combat duty."

"Da, of course. Thank you."

"Sir, there is something else. It may be nothing, but I think you should know about it." He hesitated, waiting for my approval.

"Go on…"

"Elena Michaels has joined the Air Force, Silber Squadron to be precise. Apparently, Captain Roy vouched for her."

"WHAT!?"

Silber Squadron was for cadet pilots who seemed to display a certain natural aptitude for combat flying. Of course, they didn't just let anyone in. it consisted of four trainees, and one top ace who lead the formation. You had to have someone, a top Ace pilot, vouch for you. As trainee Squadrons go, it was the best possible way to start, and at the end of a cadet's tour with them, they where arguably some of the best pilots anywhere.

"When is Silber Squadron's next mission?" I asked, my thoughts spinning.

"One moment, Sir." There was a pause then: "I'm sorry, sir, they just launched four minuets ago."

_Dammit!_ I thought.

"What about Captain Roy? Where is he?"

"Just a moment, Sir." Another pause then: "I'm sorry Sir; he doesn't appear to be in the base. I'll let you know the moment he arrives though."

I sighed, and then said: "very well."

Why do things never go exactly as planned?


	4. Another Bite

Chapter #4#

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

4 kilometres West of Moscow

1900 Hours Local

The sun was beginning to set over Moscow, and I was out for a run. Now by a run, I don't mean a jog; I had Changed a few minutes ago and was now running through the forest.

Normally, runs anywhere other then Stonehaven are dangerous, and should be avoided, although, I wanted to get that rush I once had going into combat before I had gotten my ass blown right out of the sky.

I started running again, going at full speed through a path that wasn't used very often by humans, but I was a wolf, so I had a slightly easier time. Branches crashed against my head and a few threatened to trip me as I ran, but I still kept running until I came to a stop because I thought I smelled something.

Even though I knew that it wasn't a natural scent, I decided to peruse it anyways. Curiosity is natural for werewolves, so I started to follow that trail. Following a scent trail is not as easy as it sounds; either that or it was because I was still a fairly new werewolf.

Eventually, I got to where the scent was the strongest, but I still for some reason, couldn't place it. Something, a branch I guess, snapped behind me, and several things happened before I could think. Someone jumped out of the bush behind me, and made a run for it. The wolf instincts took over and I chased. I jumped with a growl, the person turned, aware now that they where trapped, I recognized who it was and I tried to stop, but it was too late.

My teeth sank into the person's lower right arm, I let go, but I was too slow. Too little to late, as they say. I thought I saw a flash of recognition in the person's eyes, but I dismissed that as a trick of light.

I ran as fast as I could towards where I had stashed my uniform, found it, Changed back, donned it, and made a beeline for Vladimir Air Force Base.

I knew that I had to get some medical personnel there immediately. If it was anyone else, I would have regrettably killed them as soon as I realized what had happened…

Elena Michaels

B7R Airspace

1935 Hours Local

Falcon 305

We where flying above a mountain chain that the other pilots in the squadron called "The Round Table" it was pretty dark and mysterious, but I kept my formation just like Captain Jack "Heartbreak 1" Bartlett told me to. The AWACS plane for this mission had the Callsign of Eagle Eye, and the crew of that plane had apparently seen some action in The Belkan War.

I could see five bright red points of light coming from the other planes. Two of those belonged to Bartlett, the rest where the three other F-16 Falcons that Silber Squadron flew. We where on a routine training mission, and Second Lieutenant Steve "Slider" Aaronburger and I shouldn't have been there, but their regular squadron members apparently got appendicitis.

"Warning! Warning!" the AWACS suddenly announced. "radar shows enemy aircraft approaching Area B7R, Silber Squadron, we cannot authorize a retreat. Commence intercept!"

"Gimmie a break! I'm babysittn' nuggets up here!" Bartlett complained.

"Silber Squadron, engage." The AWACS said calmly.

"Baker, Sphenson! Go trail and stay close, the three of us'll go high and engage the bandits. All other aircraft stay low and outta the fight!"

despite their best efforts, the two planes down onto me and Slider like hawks with talons extended.

(Author's note: cue the song 'Zero' from Ace Combat Zero. Here's a link if you don't already have it: http://jeff. )

I fired my medium-range missiles. Two of them blasted away with a 'whoosh!' and I saw out of the corner of my eye on the Heads-up-Display that my missiles where more or less reloading. Bird Dog had said that all Soviet aircraft now employed that system, but it was still weird to see it.

The missile on the right hit the target, but didn't destroy it, while the missile on the left missed the target completely. Baker slid in behind the enemy plane's rear and fired at close range. The chased plane tried to… well, it looked like it was trying to fire backwards, but he evaded it, and killed the plane I had damaged.

"Whooooeeeee!" Baker called, "Bandit down!" he called.

"This is Gelb two! I'm hit!" the enemy called out to his buddy.

"Bail out, that's an order!" the second one said.

A second later, I saw an ejection seat fire. The second plane was destroyed by a combined attack by Slider and Sphenson. The enemy plane tumbled flaming in the sky end over end in an expanding globe of destruction. I saw that plane's canopy blow too and the ejection seat fired. The pilot was barely clear of his plane before it exploded.

"All right, nice work, nuggets!" Heartbreak 1 said. "We might get another serving soon, so stay--"

"More bandits on radar! Shoot them down and secure air superiority!" the AWACS said.

I looked, and I had them on my radar as well. Four blips with the identification as "Grun."

"Report," said a British-accented voice a few seconds later.

"This is Grun 2; there are five of them; all nuggets." A second British-accented voice replied.

"Well then," the first voice said, "let's have some fun!"

They were coming head-on for us. I went to full afterburners and I was surprised at how fast this little jet could go. The enemy plane was now within range of my shorter range heat-seeking missiles. I got a lock, fired off two missiles, and pulled hard to the right turn that crushing me into my seat and drained the blood from my brain.

My vision went grey around the edges, and I tensed all my muscles up and grunted.

"One plane down!" one of the enemy pilots said. "Looks like we underestimated them!"

"All Grun units, Set ejection handles to green!" the enemy squadron leader said.

I went to attack another plane with my medium range missiles; I got the radar lock and fired.

"Fox… uh, what do I call this thing again?" I didn't know very many terms for air combat then.

The missile blasted ahead of my fighter, and for a second, I found myself staring briefly right up its tailpipe.

"Shit!" I said, blinking. My night vision was gone, shattered by the missile's cone of fire.

"Next time," Bartlett said, "don't look!"

I blinked hard several times, I could still read the fighter's instruments well enough, and that was really all that mattered.

The targeted plane deployed some bright light or something in its wake, and I watched helplessly as my missile hit the ball of light and not the enemy plane.

"You nailed a flare, Silber 5!" Sphenson said.

"These are Round Table fighters! Stay sharp!" Baker called.

"The Round Table's nothing special!" Slider yelled. "I'll take care of things!"

Seconds later, Sphenson brought down another of the enemy planes.

"Those bastards!" Grun 1 said. "Grun 2, it's time to get serious!"

Slider laughed and said: "hey, Silber 5, now things are nice and even. One for you, and one for me!"

He went off to engage the second last plane, and I went started to attack Grun 1. As I was chasing him through the sky, the backside of his plane exploded with startling abruptness. I saw the ejection seat fire as his plane fell away trailing fire.

_That was MY kill! _I thought angrily. _Who the hell-?_

"Thanks for dragging him into position for me, Silber 5!" Sphenson said.

I looked back, and saw his plane twisting away. Slider managed to bring down his target as well, and like all the other enemy planes, his ejection seat fired.

It seemed calm for a few seconds, then I heard: "Targets are in firing range. Shcnee 1 to all units; release your missiles."

I looked at the radar screen, and I saw five small, fast-moving blips coming in on all of us. I dove for the deck, picking up speed and I levelled out after the missile warning alarm stopped shrieking at me. the rest of the squadron did the same.

My aircraft's computer got a lock, and I fired my radar-guided missiles, although due to something, my missiles twisted away after a few seconds of flight.

"there's an escort craft mixed in with that squadron that's equipped with ECM pods. It's interfering with the radar!" the AWACS said, after my shot missed.

"Dammit!" Baker said. "Jamming! Radar response dropping!"

"we'll deal with the jammer later, just shoot down those fighters!" Heartbreak 1 said.

"roger that sir!" we all said.

I kept dodging the long-range missiles that this new batch of enemy planes kept firing out, until I was within range of my short range heat seeker missiles. My aircraft's computer identified this group of fighters as "F-14D 'Tomcats'". They didn't look like a very good plane from where I was. They where big, bulky, and they didn't look very agile. I launched the missiles almost at the same time as the enemy plane did. I didn't have time to react as the missiles, somehow through a mechanical failure passed above my canopy barely missing my aircraft. My missiles though where dead on target, going right down the left air intake of the plane before exploding that sent the other plane spiralling downward as the left engine exploded. I pulled away from the plane as its ejection seat fired sending yet another pilot to a safe landing.

Baker slid onto the rear of another plane, but his target was trying not to get hit. He kept turning hard, but Baker was more manuverible then he was, and flew into a stream of machine gun fire and it's backside was pumped full of 20 millimetre holes. A fireball erupted from the stricken aircraft fell.

"Bagged another one! Score tie, Sphenson, Four and four!"

"Hey guys!" Slider called, "I'll bet you guys the drinks that we can rack up more kills then you two can!"

"Well, well, well." Baker said, "What have we here? Insulting from the nuggets? Definitely a problem there, how'd you juniors do?"

"We 'juniors' did just fine, Baker." I said "two for three, and another probable. How 'bout you?"

"Four up, four down. Hardly seems fair though. Poor bastards never knew what hit them."

"Actually," Sphenson interrupted, "we're only being credited with three kills each. Two of our shots couldn't be confirmed."

"Hey, Sphenson, whose side are you on, anyways?" Baker said, sounding hurt.

"All in the interest of fair play, honesty and all that shit, dude."

"I make it five to four then," I said. "You guys buy the beer."

"This engagement isn't over yet, Silber 5," Baker said. "We'll see who buys the beer."

"You've got yourself a bet, only let's make it interesting: beer and dinner when we land. Me and Slider, Vs you two, deal?"

"This is Eagle Eye," the AWACS interrupted. "Cut the chatter!"

We did, and we kept engaging the two remaining fighters. I shot another one down, while slider shot down the last one.

"The radar is still jammed! Find that jammer aircraft!"

"This is Baker; I've got it in my sights! Locked on, tone, fox two! Fox two!"

I looked to my right, and saw a tiny flicker of light.

I did a mental tally on all the planes that had been shot down.

I had three kills, the same as Slider; Baker had two as well as Sphenson. Although, this is just what I had personally experienced. Apparently, Baker already had five kills and Sphenson had three.

"Espada 1 to Espada 2," a Hispanic-accented voice said. "These flyboys have downed too many of our allies, we must stop them here!"

"This is Espada 2," a Hispanic woman said. "Roger! Lead the way!"

These two planes where different. One flew a plane that my computer identified as "J 35 'Draken'" while the other one showed up simply as 'Rafale**'. **I closed in on the Draken, but once I got within firing range, he somehow seemed to stop in midair and started to fly backwards and up! I flashed past and I found myself staring briefly into the other pilots face, only a few deadly meters away. He was on my tail a few seconds later, he fired a pair of missiles at me, but I anticipated that, and was already turning hard right to evade them.

Again, someone was there to bail me out. I looked, and saw that while my pursuer was busy flying backwards, he failed to realize that that had turned him into a sitting duck, and gave Slider a perfect shot. His plane didn't explode, or trail fire. In fact, because it was dark, I couldn't tell if anything actually DID happen at all. On my radar, his plane turned from a red triangle into a yellow triangle, and he started to retreat back in the direction he had come from, but slower. Almost too slowly to remain airborne.

"Espada 1," the woman said "pull out!"

"I'll head back to base first. I'll see you in the usual spot." The first pilot said his transmission choppy due to static.

I guess that the rest of the squadron had decided to let me handle the remaining plane on my own. The two of us went into a deadly manoeuvre known as a 'rolling vertical scissors'. Each plane trying to line up and fire a shot, only to have the target evade and do the same to you. Each repeat of the manoeuvre cost both pilots airspeed and altitude, and neither plane is able to disengage without giving the other guy an immediate advantage.

Of course, I didn't know that, and as such, I didn't see the danger. Eventually, after my plane started to shake, the other plane broke off, and tried to win back the altitude and airspeed it had lost, but it was too low and to slow. I fired off a pair of heat seeking missiles and watched as the pilot ejected.

This time, I readied myself for an attack, and I heard: "This is Wizard 1; Silber Squadron has entered the net."

"This is Wizard 5, roger- SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK!? MISSILE LAUCH! MISSILE LAUNCH!!"

I looked at the direction that these new enemy planes where coming in, and I saw two white trails that I had now associated with missiles, then suddenly, the missiles exploded into a fireball that shouldn't have been possible. Me and Slider each took down a survivor of the attack, and I then heard: "So, have you all found a reason to fight yet… buddies?"


	5. Elena's Fighter Training

Chapter #5#

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

4 kilometres West of Moscow

2000 hours local

Once I got back to the Kremlin, I told the medical personnel that Tomboy had gotten bitten by something and she went down hard. I didn't tell them the whole truth because there was literally no time to explain. By the time we got to where I left her, her arm was starting to swell.

_How the hell did I let this happen? _I thought, as the medical team picked her up, and put her onto a stretcher. _Why did I let this happen? I should have killed her outright the second after I bit her… _

After we got back to Vladimir Air Force Base, I went into Sick Bay, and said: "I know what this is, so I'll take over the medical aid for her."

They shrugged, and said that as long as I didn't get in their way, they didn't have a problem.

I got some restraints, a chair, and a glass of water. It was going to be a LONG night…

Elena Michaels

B7R Airspace

2015 hours local

Falcon 305

"Dammit! I'm out of ammo, returning to re-arm!" Slider said.

"Same here… sorry Silber 5, no help from me." Baker said

"I'm too low on fuel. I gotta get back to base now, if I don't wanna end up like the other pilots." Sphenson called.

"This is Heartbreak 1, Silber 5; cover us while we get back to base! Keep him busy!"

There I was: I had some new plane to deal with, and I could guess that since he came alone, he was GOOD. My aircraft's computer didn't know what to make of him. All it had was the usual red box with 'TGT' on its left, 'UNKNOWN' and 'PIXY' on the right.

(Author's note: cue the song 'Zero' once again. That's the last time, I promise.)

"Confirmed enemy aircraft on radar! Silber 5, continue your mission, engage." The AWACS said.

"Yeah, umm Eagle Eye, I'd really like to know what I'm dealing with here!" I said.

"Stand by! I'll run a plane analysis and fill you in ASAP!"

I went head-on with Pixy, as his Callsign designated him, and fired two missiles at him from head-on. He survived that, and we passed right by each other. He decided that I was the one he should concentrate on, and he, believe it or not, started firing some kind of laser at me. I evaded it fairly easily, as he didn't seem to be too skilled at using it. I got behind him, and started to use my machine gun. He sensed this, and twisted away even as I was still firing, missing his aircraft by a generous margin. I managed to stick with his turn, grunting heavily, and I fired off another pair of missiles. These two both hit, but he didn't die like any of the planes I shot down before.

Pixy came out of his turn, and I saw my opportunity, and launched another pair of missiles. This time, something blew off, and started to fall off his plane, disintegrating. I realised it was the laser when I looked back at his plane. The thing riding piggyback on it was gone now, and that was where the laser had come from.

"Phase one analysis complete! That craft is capable of carrying a Tactical laser, as well as Multi-purpose Burst Missiles! Watch yourself, Silber 5!" the AWACS chimed in.

"There's only one way, buddy!" Pixy said, "you've gotta fight for what you believe in!"

Just then, Pixy launched a missile. I easily evaded it, especially considering that it went off on its own somewhere roughly ahead of me.

_Well, this guy can't aim very well, _I thought. Suddenly, the missile exploded in a huge explosion that temporarily blinded me again. I yanked my fighter away from the explosion, blinking hard, trying to see.

As I was turning around, I fired two missiles when I heard the electronic warble that told me I had now locked onto Pixy. The two missiles blasted away and missed entirely. I went into a chase.

He fired another super-missile, but I was ready for it this time, and I closed my eyes, and pulled up.

"CHRIST! SILBER 5! WATCH OUT!" the AWACS screamed. I opened my eyes and saw that Pixy was nowhere to be seen… at least until I looked up and saw myself only a handful of feet from his plane. I was so close that even in the dark, I could read the lettering on the other plane's body, and I could see his head tipped back to return my stare.

I pulled away, not willing to have a mid-air collision, and he managed to slide onto my tail and fire two missile shots at close range. I pulled away, and managed to somehow stall my aircraft, which caused him to flash past me. I fired, and this time, scoured a hit! He went into another hard turn, launching a salvo of super missiles, but I closed my kept following, waiting for the perfect shot. I got another hit on him as he pulled out of his hard turn.

"You fired up?" he said. "Come shoot me down!"

I was only too happy to oblige, as I fired off my last medium-range missiles. They all struck home. I went to fire another pair of short-range missiles, but as soon as they neared, they went off in crazy directions. He went to full afterburners, almost as if to run away. I was about to follow when the Eagle Eye said: "this is AWACS! Listen up, Silber 5! We've completed analysis of the enemy craft. Codename: Morgan, this plane is protected by an ECM defence system. It's only weak point is in the front air intake. You'll have to attack it head-on! You're the only one that can stop him! Good luck!"

So, I went head-on with Pixy. As we approached each other, we both fired our missiles. I evaded his, and mine hit him. _Damn! _ I thought as we passed each other with only a few meters to spare. _Not right on target! _I tried again, this time, neither of our shots connected. We tired again, this time, I was closer to the front air intake, but it still wasn't on-target.

"Now we find out who's number one!" Pixy said as we closed on each other for the final time. I fired and this time, the missiles went in!

"COME ON!!" Pixy yelled, anger flooding his voice. We passed each other again for the last time, passing belly-to-belly as he trailed smoke. I turned back to see him, and I saw the flash of an ejection seat, then the much larger flash of his plane exploding.

"Mission accomplished, Silber 5!" Eagle Eye said. "Come on, let's go back home!"

"Hey, what gives?" Slider said, as I saw him on the radar. "Aww man! We missed all the fun!"

"Goddamn Silber 5! That was the gutsiest move I've ever seen!" Sphenson said.

"After that," Baker said. "We concede, right, Sphenson?"

"Affirmative! We'll buy the beer!"

"Uh-uh!" I said. "Didn't we agree to beer and DINNER?"

"Damn…" Baker said. "She remembered."

All of us laughed as we made our way back to base.

"You all alive?" Heartbreak 1 said. "All right, nice work nuggets! Silber 5, you still following us? Well to commemorate the fact that we all made it outta that battle alive, I'm gonna give you a Callsign. From now on, I'm gonna call you 'she-wolf', no matter what. Got it? Good!"

"Uhh, yeah... Sorry but I'm going to have to-" I tried to finish, but the AWACS interrupted me.

"Roger Heartbreak 1, confirming Callsign of Silber 5." Then a few seconds later:

"Callsign confirmed, Silber 5. From now on, we'll refer to you as 'she-wolf." Over."

That took my good mood down a little, but there was still the prospect of food, and at the moment, I was starving!

When we got back to base, it was almost 2:00 AM, and I was dead tired. I climbed out of the plane I was in for the past two hours, went into my room (or Quarters, as the base people called It.) and flopped onto the bed, not bothering to get out of my flight suit, and I fell asleep shortly afterwards.

Strangely though, I didn't have a problem falling asleep even with the roar of jet engines screaming in the background.

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

Sick Bay

0700 Hours Local

I didn't leave Tomboy's side all night. I wouldn't even be able to sleep anyways, I would have been thinking all night, berating myself over what had happened. I couldn't kill her, but I also couldn't have let her go through with the transformation. A medic had suggested that we simply place her in a cryogenic tube (Yuri's design, naturally) and keep her there until we could figure out how to reverse the effects of the bite.

That had been over three hours ago. The medic had taken a tissue sample from where my teeth had sank in, and was examining it.

"Damn it!" he said from his microscope.

"No, don't say 'damn it.'" I said "what's wrong?"

"Well whatever this thing is, it's not stopping. The tissue gets frozen solid, but this thing just keeps going."

"DAMMIT!" I yelled as I grabbed my chair and threw it as hard as I could onto the ground. It broke on contact, and I calmed down. I started to pick up the bits, and asked: "so, what is this thing?"

"My best guess sir; it's a Prion disease of some sort."

"A Prion? What's that?"

"A Prion is an improperly-shaped protein molecule. Most just attack the brain and liquefy it. Nobody knows why exactly, but it fits. Immunity to cold, and I can just barely see this thing. Here, take a look." He moved over, and let me look at the microscope. I peered in, and saw a cell changing slightly. He was right; I could just barely see what was attacking the cell, extremely tiny specks. They seemed to pass right through the cell membrane, and start to… I guess the right word is 'mutate' the DNA.

I pulled away from the microscope and hung my head. This was completely and totally MY fault…

I started to wonder how I was going to tell the Pack about this.


	6. from Pilot to Werewolf

Chapter 6

Elena Michaels

Vladimir Air Force Base

0945 Hours Local

I woke up when my stomach started growling. I got out of bed, and saw that I was still wearing my drab green flight suit. I put on the uniform I was given and made my way to the cafeteria. (Everyone else on the base called it the Mess Hall) and got enough to eat so that I wouldn't arouse suspicion, while at the same time filling me up for the day.

After I was done, I went onto the Tarmac of the air base, and saw that I wasn't going to be flying today. As I looked around, I saw that Bird Dog's plane was still sitting there, practically unused. I checked the flight schedule again, and none of Yellow squadron would be flying today. I saw another member of Yellow Squadron coming towards me to also read the flight schedule.

"Excuse me," I said, being as kind as possible. "Where's your Captain? Bird Dog?"

"You mean Yellow 13?" he responded.

"Yeah, do you know where he is?"

The pilot shrugged. "He's not in Sickbay looking after Tomboy?"

"That's where he is?" I asked

"Last I checked," he responded.

"Okay, thanks." And I left him to read the flight schedule.

When I arrived outside Sickbay, I switched to breathing through my mouth. The smell of hospitals, infections, painkillers, and god-knows-what, would drive me from there and possible leave me with a headache for the rest of the day. When I got inside, I saw Bird Dog watching over someone. As I got closer, I saw that that someone was a woman.

At first, I thought she was dead, but I saw her chest rise and fall very slowly assuring me that she was alive. Bird Dog held up one of her arms and checked her pulse and I saw leather restraints around her wrist. I didn't see any IV tubes in her unlike the other patients. Suddenly, the woman started to convulse violently, and I what I saw on her other arm made me recoil. What I saw was something that had been on my own finger once, I saw it on another woman's arm as well, and on Bird Dog's own arm.

What I saw was a purple swelling mass on her lower right arm, and was the beginning of a human's transformation into a werewolf. I inhaled through my nose, pushing out all the other scents of the hospital, and confirmed it: there where, excluding myself, two werewolves there; Bird Dog, and the woman now convulsing in the hospital bed.

Bird Dog looked up, and seemed to notice me for the first time. I saw tears going down his face, now wrinkled slightly from lack of sleep.

"It just happened so fast…" he said, wiping away the tears. "One second, I was alone in the forest, then the next…" he shuddered slightly. "I swear I didn't mean to do it, she just appeared suddenly…" he stopped, in too much pain to continue.

The woman on the bed stopped convulsing, and several medics where crowding around her to straighten out the bones she sprained, as well as to take samples of various bodily fluids. It took all my willpower not to break those guys necks right there. _They shouldn't be allowed to do that! _I thought angrily. _That's just wrong!_

Bird Dog said nothing to this, and when I looked him in the eye, I saw nothing. Nothing at all. He was completely elsewhere, probably focusing on a few months ago, replaying what had happened when he was bitten. Trying to track how she was doing, I guess.

"Who is she?" I asked.

"My wingwoman, Sarah Nakano," he said. "I was out for a run when she came out of nowhere, and by the time I realized who it was, it was too late."

"So you didn't plan this?"

He was taken aback at that, and said: "no! I'd never even consider it!" he was being completely honest with me.

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

Sick Bay, Vladimir Air force Base

0644 hours local

October 4, 2006

The next few days passed in a blur for me. Elena sometimes came in to check on Tomboy's status, and to threaten the medical personnel that if they tried to take any more tissue samples from Sarah, she'd personally grind them into tiny bits. Naturally, that lead to a complaint, which in turn, leaded to a public ass-chewing by the Base Commander.

Sarah woke up on October forth. I almost didn't notice it because I was checking her pulse, if only to be sure she still had one. Her fingers twitched, and I thought she was having yet another seizure. I saw her eyes open slowly, and I knew instead that she was waking up.

"Whaa… happen…?" her words where barely audible, even with werewolf hearing.

"Its okay, Sarah," I whispered, trying to get her slowly used to her new, heightened senses. "The doctors are taking good care of you; you're going to be fine. You just got a bad case of the flu, that's all." I knew I was sugar-coating the whole thing. It would never be 'fine' for Sarah again, or at least, it would never be the way she remembered it.

"Bull… shit…" she knew something was wrong. This was no ordinary cold, and she could tell that something was totally wrong.

Before I had a chance to explain, I was shooed from sickbay, and the doctors restarted their medical tests. They thought Elena's threat was the real deal, hence the complaint, hence the ass-chewing. I knew she was kidding… I think.

Lt. Commander Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Sickbay, Vladimir Air Force Base

0644 hours local

I woke up from my own, personal hell, although, I can't say I was relieved. I knew something was wrong with me, but before Bird Dog could tell me what it was, the doctors shooed him from the room, and started to run some tests on me. I had the nagging feeling that what they where doing to me was somehow wrong, but I didn't care, nor did I have the energy to fight them.

After the doctors where finished with me, Elena came in and sat down on the seat that Bird Dog had vacated some time ago.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I feel like shit if you must know." I mumbled, my lack of energy limiting that to just about all I could do.

She nodded, grimly and said: "I know, I've been through the same thing you're going through."

"So what is this exactly?" I was getting exhausted, but I had to know what this was.

Before Elena could explain, one of the doctors said: "sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid you'll have to leave. The Lt Commander needs to recover her strength. Come back in a couple of days, okay?" she tried to argue, but the doctor threatened to call the Base Commander in again if she refused to leave.

So, I was left sipping juice through a straw, and an IV tube was placed in my arm to keep me from dying of lack of nutrition.

I kept dozing off and waking up so often that I thought days had gone passed, when it was only just a few hours. But I had this weird burning feeling on my joints, like I had a muscle cramp or something.

I woke up again at night, but I couldn't tell when. The burning feeling had not spread to every part of my body. Suddenly, I was wracked with immense pain, and I fell out of the hospital bed I was in, and I started to Change.

Medical personnel rushed in to try and tried to help me, but they had no idea what to do. I tried fighting whatever this was, but it wasn't doing any good whatsoever. Through all the waves of pain, I could see that my arms weren't human anymore, I tried to scream, but what came out of my mouth wasn't even remotely human. A final wave of pain more powerful then any I've ever felt up to that point slammed into me, and I blacked out.

I 'woke up' in a dream, as a wolf. It was too crowded in here! I took off, knocking down several officers as I tore out of the base. I crashed into a wall a few times, but I kept going, and eventually, I was out on the tarmac of the air base. The roar of a combat jet taking off nearly defined me, and I bolted going right in FRONT of it. I nearly got sucked in, but I dug my claws in, and got out of its way. I dashed into the forest, into safety.

Once I was in deep enough, I let out a howl into the moonless sky. This was where I belonged! I kept running, pushing myself well past my maximum runner's endurance, but I didn't stop even to catch my breath for a few seconds.

I found a stream and started to drink out of it, my thirst was killing me. What was strange about this dream was that it felt so real, but it couldn't be. Last I checked, I was a human, not a wolf.

After I quenched my thirst, I looked at myself. I was a wolf with black fur making me almost completely invisible in this night. Next, I went to my hearing. The forest was alive with all the sounds forests make at night; an owl hooting somewhere off in the distance, a rustling of some kind of rodent in the underbrush, the trickle of water from the stream, and so on. My vision? It sucked. Whether that was because it was night, or because my brain decided to make this dream as real as possible, I couldn't tell. That, and I didn't really care. Now, another other bodily need came to surface: food.

I went off in search of something, anything that would satisfy my hunger. I soon found it, a camp of humans who had decided to try living in MY territory. They where talking, but I didn't bother listening. If you are so far down on the evolutionary ladder that you need to TALK to get your point across, you are a hopelessly flawed creature with no hope of redemption. I snuck up on them, being very careful not to give myself away. Their artificial scents where repulsive to me, but I was too hungry not to care.

NO! Some part of my brain screamed. I WON'T LET YOU ATTACK THEM! NO! NO!!

I pushed that part of my mind away. I needed to focus, and having some part of my brain yelling at me didn't help. I suddenly heard a dog barking wildly. DAMN! I was upwind, sending my scent towards them, instead of the other way around! I shot forward, and attacked the first living thing I saw, the dog.

The dance of intimidation lasted only a few seconds, because the dog –idiot that it was- charged at me, no doubt driven by loyalty. I easily sidestepped, and attacked the dogs left hind leg, yanked it down onto the ground, and killed it by grabbing its head in my mouth and snapping it's neck.

I looked up after killing the dog. There was a family of three humans. One of them, an adult female lunged at me, trying to protect her child, but I quickly overpowered her, and ripped out her neck. The adult male grabbed some kind of gun (the other part of my brain, the screaming part, knew what it was, but I didn't care) and started attacking me with it. Something hit me in the side; I turned sharply, grabbed his ankle, and forced him down. He tried to get up, but I was to fast, and I tore into his upper body. The last one, a child kept screaming at the top of her lungs not knowing what to do, but could not think of anything else.

I killed the child with no real difficulty. God, this was such a RUSH!! I could keep doing this all night! But, first things first: I was hungry, and I needed the food in my stomach, not sitting out left to rot. The other part of my brain had now settled into a whimpering mess, no longer screaming at me, which was a relief.

I honestly didn't know why it had gone silent though. I was hungry, they where prey, I killed them and ate them. What was wrong? It happened all the time, all over the world, every second of every day. I shrugged those thoughts away and continued feeding. I heard rustling to my left in a bush. It was too big to be a rodent, but to small to be another human. I sniffed, and got the scent. Another wolf.

I was annoyed; someone had the nerve to violate MY territory!? I sensed that this one was a female. She had golden fur that seemed to glow in the pale light from the human's campfire and the stars above. I gave a growl to the new wolf. 'Stay back if you know what's good for you.'

The newcomer looked around at what was left of my meal, and then growled at me. I held my ground and growled back, exposing my blood-stained teeth. She then charged without warning, and slammed into me. We grappled with each other, clawing, biting and snarling when one of us missed with an attack. I managed to sink my teeth into the newcomer, but I only succeeded in yanking out a mouthful of golden fur. She jumped on me, and I was forced down. I managed to throw her off me after she made the wound on my side that much worse.

The newcomer attacked my wounded flank, because she slammed into it a few seconds after I threw her off. The pain was so sharp and sudden that I blacked out.


	7. Military military meets Supernautrals

Chapter 7

Supreme Commander Romanov

Sparta, Vermont

1030 hours local

The meeting of the Interracial Council had taken longer then I had originally expected. Most of the delegates (with the exception of Jeremy) didn't believe that there where other universes in existence. In the end, I had to take them back to my home universe (for some reason, dubbed 'Command and Conquer') and show them around several key areas of my universe's history.

The first stop was China with the ruins of Tiananmen Square, Beijing where a terrorist attack from the GLA had destroyed it, several years ago. China now deemed it as a memorial to all those whose lives had been lost in the fight against the GLA threat. The next stop was a tiny island in the Florida Keys where the Allies had built a Chronosphere, a mass teleportation device that they had used to defeat the Soviet Union the first time around. Next was Alcatraz Island where Yuri had intended to launch a Psychic mind control wave that, had he succeeded, would have turned the entire planet into mindless Yuri drones. the last stop was the Tiber River in Italy where the meteorite carrying the Tiberium mineral had sent the entire world out of an economic rescission, but into three new world wars. Two against the Brotherhood of Nod, the last one against a supercomputer named CABAL.

They eventually accepted that there where other universes, and I explained the situation. There was a race of aliens, no more then slugs, really, that where trying to destroy the Soviet Union, and take over the planet. We had the edge on them, at least until they stole a modified Chronosphere and now they were also going to other universes. These slugs went into the brain via the ear cannel, then flattened themselves around the brain and took control of the host. I had also told them that if they so much as got ONE supernatural, then the entire supernatural community would fall apart in a matter of days, maybe less.

The delegates where undecided as of what to do; the Witches as well as the Shamans wanted to try and find a diplomatic approach to get the Yeerks off Earth, and stop them from taking over other planets via peaceful channels. The half-demons and werewolves (who had already been notified about this) wanted to defeat them through offensive means, and they both agreed that the Soviet Union should lead the assaults. The vampires said that they didn't really care what happened, so long as the threat was eliminated.

In the end, I simply said: "this threat is more then likely the biggest threat that each of your races has ever faced. I would appreciate it greatly if you could merely contact all of, or at least, some of the other members of your races, and let them know of this threat. If they wish to support or join our cause, then they are more then welcome to do so." And I went back to Moscow shortly afterwards. On the ride back, I relaxed. I had been in United Nations meetings before, watching the Russian Ambassador deal with the other nation's ambassadors, and I was glad that it wasn't MY headache.

Dealing with foreign nationals is a tricky, dangerous, and often frustrating process. Now I fully understood that, and I respected the Russian Ambassador, now more then ever.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Ten kilometres south of Moscow

0739 Hours Local

I woke up in A LOT of pain. Every muscle in my body was throbbing, and my right side hurt like hell. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a clearing in the forest. I saw something hanging out of my mouth. Wincing against the pain, I pulled it out; a clump of golden fur, like the wolf I encountered in that frighteningly realistic dream… I sat up, and tried to see what had happened to my side. It had what looked like a shotgun blast in it. _All just like in my dream... WAS that a dream? _I started to panic. I couldn't remember anything except that damn dream I had, but that was all it was, all it HAD to be. _I couldn't… it was impossible! I had killed that family, and… oh god… a little girl. _Whether it was a dream or not was irrelevant now, it had seemed so realistic… I started puking, and was horrified when a chip of bone came up. The sight of that bone fragment held my thoughts in a vice, and I couldn't hold onto my stomach any longer, and I continued puking for what seemed like hours, until I just had dry heaves. When it was over, I curled into a ball and began crying.

I was there like that for a while. I can't say exactly how long because I honestly don't know. What I do know was that I snapped out of it when I heard some underbrush crunch. I huddled up into a tighter ball, not wanting to even SEE whoever it was.

"Go away, go away, go away." I whimpered.

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I cringed.

A soft voice said: "don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you." The person started to comfort me, and I slowly managed to pull myself together.

"I know what you're going through, Sarah. I went through it myself, and I saw someone else go through it to. Trust me, you're going to get through this." I recognized the person's smell. It was the golden wolf, the newcomer.

I turned my head up and saw Elena crouching over me. "What are you doing here?" I asked, hating myself for how pathetic and weak my voice sounded.

"I heard what happened, and came to investigate. I knocked you out, and I stayed with you all night."

I broke down again, and cried. "What's happening to me?"

"I'm sorry to say this, but there's no other way to say it. You're a werewolf now, just like me. I'll tell you more later, right now, we need to get you to Stonehaven."

"Stonehaven? What's that? A prison of some kind?"

She shook her head. "I'll explain later. It's not a good idea right now. Wait here, I'll be back."

She left, leaving me alone and shivering on the ground. I began crying again. I didn't ask for this. What was happening to me?

Elena returned a few minutes later, carrying an armload of clothing. "Sorry, but it's the best I could find. Clothesline pickings, you'll get used to it soon enough."

I put on the clothes that Elena had given me, and we walked back to Moscow. She tried to start a conversation several times as we made our way back, but I wasn't ready to talk about anything just yet. Once we got back, I went into the supply center and got myself a new uniform, and we got something to eat in the mess hall.

Elena Michaels

Mess Hall, Vladimir Air Force Base

0839 Hours Local

Sarah and I went into the mess hall to get something to eat. She was still shaken up, and I knew that we would have to take her to Stonehaven very soon. As Sarah was filling up her trey with heaps of food, I scented Bird Dog, and looked up as he walked in. he looked terrible, and he seemed to age years in the few days since I had seen him last. I had a bad feeling about this, but Sarah didn't appear to notice. Once her tray was full, we sat down at an unoccupied table. Bird Dog saw us, and came over. Why this rotten feeling? As he approached, the feeling grew worse. Then when he was only a few feet from where we where sitting, Sarah looked up and I heard a faint, but clear "you…"

She moved so fast, I almost missed her as she jumped from the table as she smashed against Bird Dog, yelling and screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME, YOU GODDAMN MONSTER!?" she yelled as she started to punch him. I heard a few ribs crack as the next punch came down. Corpsman and the other people still eating rushed over, and tried to help, but Sarah's rage would NOT be stopped. She got up from Bird Dog long enough to grab the nearest person –A pilot, I guess- and throw him clear across the room.

Now, alarms shrieked and now a brigade of commandos rushed in, and fired! I took cover, but the special forces where not aiming at me, but rather something of to my left- Sarah! They were shooting Sarah! At first, I thought they where going to kill her, but when I saw several darts hit her, I knew that they where simply sedating her.

It took at least 20 rounds to finally bring her down. When she did go down, two of the five commandos went up to her, ready to carry her away somewhere, while the other three kept their guns fixed on her, in case she woke up.

I followed them, demanding that I would have custody of her. One of the commandos turned, and said: "Nyet. She is to be taken immediately to the brig, and later have disciplinary measures carried out."

"No, you don't understand this is an extremely fragile moment for her, if you don't give her to me right now; you'll have mentally destroyed this woman. Now, either you hand her over to me, or so help me, I'll do it myself."

"Nyet- CTOI!!" he said as I grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The other four guys started to try and shoot me with the tranquilizer guns, but I was too fast, and they weren't expecting it. I managed to knock them all down in about 30 seconds. Alarms started blaring, and I started running, carrying Sarah as she couldn't walk just then.

As we rounded a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. The Supreme Commander was right in my path, with a small army of troops behind him, and did I mention they all had their guns pointed at me?

He glared at me for a moment, and then said: "Just where do you think you're going, Cadet?"

"Look Commander, with all due respect, you need to let me do this, if not, you'll have a half-crazed werewolf running around your base tearing up anybody who gets in her way. Now, if you want to still have a pilot, you'll let me do this. If not, then you might as well kill her now."

The troops behind him raised their weapons, but the Commander said something in Russian, and they lowered their weapons. He said something else, and the troops left, leaving me, him, and Sarah in the hallway.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Just a plane to New York State, and preferably one that's got a lot of sedatives on board."

He pulled out a radio or something and spoke in rapid-fire Russian to the person on the other end.

He nodded, evidently satisfied, put the radio back in his chest pocket, then said: "your flight will leave in ten minutes. The plane is in hanger C, the one in the rear, and as you specified, it is stocked with sedatives."

"Thank you, sir." I said. I saluted, and then went for hanger C. the plane was almost entirely blood-red with a black scorpion tail in a triangle with the edges flattened. It had no markings on it at all other then that scorpion tail on both sides of the plane, fount and back.

I half-carried, half-dragged Sarah into the plane, shut the door, and fastened her in tightly, in a more or less comfortable position. It wasn't that I was afraid the pilot would jolt her around too much, but I was more worried that she'd wake up, and start fighting the other people on board. That was something I didn't want to experience at 30,000 feet in the air.

A flight attendant hooked her up to the sedatives, while I called Stonehaven and let the Pack know what was going on half a world away.

"Ladies, this is your captain speaking," the pilot from the cockpit said as we got airborne. "We'll be flying at a steady altitude of 25,000 feet, at Mach two over the North Pole on our way to Syracuse Airport. We should arrive at around 1645 hours local time, and the weather is expected to be rainy. I'll point out things of interest en route, in the meantime, please relax and enjoy your flight, as well as the in-flight movie." A pause then, "oh, wait, I just remembered, we have no in-flight movie we're not a commercial airline, so I hope you brought a good book!"

"Elena?" Antonio answered. "What's going on over in Russia? Is Bird Dog behaving himself?"

"Actually, that's why I'm calling. When he was out on his run, he…" I sighed. "He bit someone. He stopped before he killed her though."

"Her? Did you just- oh shit, here we go again."

"If I was there, I would have stopped him, or just killed her outright, but now…" I sighed again. "I wasn't around, and when I found out, it was well past just killing her."

"Well, I'll let Jeremy know. You better get back here pronto, though.

I looked out the window, and said: "one step ahead of you, Tonio, I'm calling from an altitude of 25,000 feet and I'm traveling at two thousand kilometres per hour."

"Okay then, see you and our new guest soon I suppose."

"Right, bye," And I hung up.

A few hours later, we landed and again, I half-carried, half-dragged Sarah out of the plane. There was a military-issue vehicle waiting for us when we landed. It had an extremely wide stance, and it looked like it could take a beating. The driver greeted me, and we both placed Sarah gently in the backseat.

When we were almost there, she started to wake up, but very slowly. By the time we got out, a good chunk of the sedatives had worn off, but not completely. Her pupils were dilated until they ate up the whole iris, and she moved clumsily, and with a trusting school kid expression on her face.

"Sarah, do you know where we are?" I asked, just to test her memory.

"Hong Kong?" she slurred. _Okay, _I thought. _Maybe she's not all the way there yet._ She collapsed into my arms a few seconds later, sound asleep again.

We went in, and I placed her on the bed in my room. I now slept with Clay more often then not, so I could stand it a few more times.


	8. Back to Stonehaven

Chapter 8

Sarah "Tomboy" Nakano

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1831 Hours Local

I woke up with one hell of a hangover. I opened my eyes, and saw a room that was definitely not mine. I sucked in a quick, sharp breath, and checked my sides, and was relieved that no strange men where sleeping next to me. Once, in Erusia before the Continental War, I had too much to drink in a bar, and I woke up in a bad part of town. It scared the hell out of me. I checked myself over to make sure that I hadn't been raped while I was out, and to see that my service pistol was still there.

As far as I could tell, I hadn't been raped and my gun was still there, so I went to find a way out of this place. I opened the door as quietly as I could, being very careful not to touch the door handle with my bare hands.

As I stepped into the hallway outside my bedroom, I drew my pistol. Something inside me said that I shouldn't even bother with it, but I ignored that, and held my gun at the ready.

"Well, it's good to see you're awake," someone said.

I turned sharply, and pulled the trigger. The shot went off-course in my panic, and I only succeeded in shooting out a light bulb. Elena didn't even flinch, while I was using my right hand (I'm left-handed) to cover my right ear. The sound from that gunshot nearly deafened me. I quickly steadied my steadied my aim.

"Who are you? What am I doing here?" I said, as calmly as I could.

"You had your first Change yesterday, didn't you? That's the most delicate point in any bitten werewolf's life. You're here because you need training in a place you feel most comfortable." She said.

I had no idea what she was saying, but I remembered… oh god. What had I done? I killed that family… I fell to the ground, curled into a ball and started crying again. I had killed that little girl in cold blood, and I didn't even feel any guilt towards it then. Jeremy tried to comfort me, but I was too far down in my own depression to notice.

Now, don't get me wrong, I killed people for a living as a pilot, but you never actually SAW anything. You never saw your weapons tear into your victim's flesh, you never heard them scream unless you had your radio set on the right frequency, and even then, it was synthetic and filled with static as the plane exploded. You never smelt anything at all except the clean, pressurized air inside the cockpit.

Yeah, I suppose it's a service branch for wimps, and we did take a lot of jokes and insults directed our way, from the army in not getting up close and personal, and from the navy in our planes not being able to land on a carrier.

Once I came out of my depression, I heard Elena say: "I know what you're going through, and believe me when I say that you WILL get through this. I've seen another woman go through this too, she made it out of the shock as well."

I tried to regain my composure, but it was nearly impossible to after what I remembered. Elena tried to console me, but I simply kept refusing to admit what had happened. There was a perfectly rational explanation out there, one that didn't involve turning into a wolf.

It finally hit me: this was one of Yuri's bizarre psychic experiments. Nobody knows WHY he does them, but he did. This was a nightmare of some kind. I was still in sickbay on the hospital bed. He fabricated everything up to this point by messing around with the signals in my brain.

I was still on the ground, but I kept whispering to myself: "Its okay Sarah, you're going to wake up soon. This isn't real, and it'll all be over."

"This isn't a dream, Sarah. Your brain is still accepting the transformation. It'll pass eventually, but not until you admit what happened to you. You got bitten, and now you're a werewolf."

I wanted to shut her out, I put my hands over my ears, but it didn't work. My hearing was too good, and her speech still penetrated my brain.

"You're the only other female werewolf besides me in the world. You are _extremely_ valuable to the mutts. If they find you, they'll probably rape you until they get bored, and then kill you. And if I know anything about mutts, I know you'll be in a worse hell than this for several months, maybe years. We're not going to let that happen to you, you got that?"

Only one word of that penetrated my mind: Rape. Every female pilot's worst nightmare, being shot down, and… I had seen that happen to another pilot, and I had NO desire to let that happen to me. I would rather DIE then let that happen.

"We can help you, but you need to do some of the work too. You need to accept what has happened to you. We can't start anything with you until you accept what happened."

I nodded, trying to do just that. I was a werewolf now, just like everyone else in this house. Dammit! It just didn't fit in my brain! It was crazy! And Bird Dog; I'd kill him if I ever saw him again! What the hell did he do to me!?

I eventually calmed down, and accepted what I couldn't change. For better or for worse, I was a werewolf. It still seemed hard to believe, but I knew that my senses where not this sharp before my forest walk. I was talking with Elena about what would happen later.

"There are a few things you need to know about being a werewolf," she said, after I calmed down enough so that we could have a conversation. "First, you need to know the difference between mutts, and the Pack. The Pack is the ruling class for our society. We don't attack people. If we get hungry, we go to the local fast-food place like everyone else, and eat there. Mutts are all the other werewolves. They do kill and eat people. They're also nomadic, as only Pack werewolves can own territory. I keep tabs on all of them in my dossiers so in case one of them stirs up trouble, we can respond and take him down before it gets any worse."

I nodded and asked: "So I guess female werewolves are pretty rare then? And they don't team up very often, right? You said 'he' instead of 'they'."

She returned my nod and said: "yeah, mutts don't team up. And if they do, it's only for as long as it benefits both of them. We had a mutt rebellion a few years back, but we stopped it. As for female werewolves, at last count, present company included, there are two--me and you."

"How come? Do the guys just think that daughters shouldn't carry the right genetics, or what?"

"There are two kinds of werewolves. First, there are hereditary, and then there are humans who have been bitten. While werewolves CAN produce daughters, they are never werewolves. The genes only get passed down the male line. The only way to get a female werewolf is to be bitten and survive it. That's something that almost never happens because A, a werewolf, even a mutt, isn't stupid. If they bite, they intend to kill, if they don't kill, then they'll hunt that person down and kill them. Often, the person dies soon after being bitten. Either from the shock of the transformation, they can't survive the first Changes, or another werewolf comes in and puts them out of their misery."

"This is a lot to digest in one sitting," I said, trying to comprehend all of what Elena was saying.

"You'll get eventually, besides, if whatever fighter pilot training is similar to what I had, you should be able to understand this no problem."

The Erusian military for training purposes accelerates everything, and tried so fit as much live combat and other practical training in as quickly as possible. The Soviets picked up on this, as well as combining Belkan tactics of facing off against ace squadrons.

I shrugged and said: "It wasn't perfect, but I got what I needed to know out of it."

"The next thing you need to know is the Pack hierarchy. Traditionally, the Alpha –yes, we use those terms--was the best fighter, but since Jeremy took power, that's changed. He's not the best fighter, but he's got better self-control then any of us. Personally, I don't really like the idea of an all-powerful, unchangeable leader, but what are you gonna do?"

I couldn't understand that attitude. Although, keep in mind I was born into a fascist society that didn't change from 1956 to 2004, so having a dictator was perfectly normal to me. It would be almost like being back home before the Continental War.

"The next thing you should know is about your Changes, turning into a wolf. Most werewolves have a weekly cycle, meaning that you need to Change at least once a week, or your body will force one on you. Another thing that causes a Change is fear. It's a reflex action for most mutts and untrained werewolves. Now as for the Change itself, I'm going to be blunt here: it hurts. A lot. You had your first Change, so you should know how it feels, but it does get a bit easier with time."

She continued telling me things on being a werewolf, and by the time she was finished, it was around 11:30 PM. I went back upstairs and fell asleep in the guestroom.

Captain "Bird Dog" Roy

Vladimir Air force base

2212 Hours Local

I spent the rest of the day on automatic. I went to go get grounded from flying because of the bones Sarah broke, then to fill out the various forms that pilots have to sign on an almost daily bases, and to eat whenever the need arouse. I guessed that Sarah still probably had her cell phone, and that she probably hadn't turned it off. It was worth a try, and if that didn't work, I could always try and call Stonehaven directly. I used the phone on my deck and called Sarah.

It rang several times before she answered it. She groaned when she picked it up, and said: "who is it?"

"Sarah, it's me, Bird Dog. Listen, you have no idea how sorry I am. I swear if I had known it was you, I would have stopped before I bit you. I love you, and-"

"Love me enough to turn me into a monster like you!? I hate you! I wish I never even MET you!"

"Sarah, as much as you think I'm the bad guy right now, I'm not. I'm not a monster either and neither are you."

"I'm hanging up now, Bird Dog," she said, venom dripping from her words. "Don't EVER call me again, got it?"

Before I could tell her to stop, she hung up.

I went to my Rack and started to actually cry. I had screwed up with the one person I would probably ever love, and now she wouldn't have anything at all to do with me.


	9. First Hunt

Chapter Nine

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

2214 hours local

After Bird Dog's call, I went to sleep thinking about what he had said. He was right: I wasn't a monster, no matter how much I hated him, or myself. If he HAD been going through the same things as I was, then he knew best.

After having a few really weird dreams involving a gopher, a shoe and a chocolate bar, (don't ask. I don't even know.) I woke up to the smell of breakfast. I got myself presentable, one of the many things that was left over from the military, and went downstairs.

After I finished eating, I was wondering how I could possibly have put so much food into myself when Elena walked over. I looked up from what I was reading, and gave a 'hmm?'

"Do you want to go on a Hunt with me, Sarah?"

"A hunt? You mean like going out and shooting a deer?"

She smiled. "Not exactly, but you got the right idea."

I was genuinely confused. Partly as to what a hunt was, but mostly for Elena asking me if I wanted to go on one. I was the most junior of all the Pack werewolves, and she was one of the highest. It would be like a General asking a Captain if they wanted to do something or not. That generally never happened; the Captain was usually told to do something, not asked.

I shrugged and said: "sure," I was being polite and maybe this was some kind of test to see how well I responded to the Chain of Command. _Yeah, _I thought. _This is a test. I can do this._

We went outside, but I was again confused at the choice of weapons. Or rather, complete lack thereof.

"Umm Elena," I said, curiosity and confusion eating away at me. "I don't see any rifles, what are we going to hunt with?"

"Oh, right, you don't know much about our slang yet. Well, when we hunt, we Change and do it as wolves."

"Oh…" I said, vaguely disturbed at the feeling that I was going to eat a deer… raw.

She seemed to sense my discomfort, and said: "don't worry, you'll get used to it. In fact, it's actually kinda fun."

We went into the forest, and we both went into separate clearings. I said nothing about it. I hadn't got a good look at a Change yet, but if it looked as bad as it felt, I didn't want anybody to see me like that. Either as a human, or a wolf, not somewhere in-between thank you very much.

I got undressed, and started to Change, but I fell face-first onto the ground when my feet turned into paws. I expected it to go fairly smoothly, like in the movies, and for it to be less painful the second time around. It wasn't, and I did not Change smoothly. It hurt like nothing I've even felt before, so I screamed, and nearly blacked out.

When it was over, I got up, and tried to get used to the fact that I was now walking on all fours and that I'd be doing this at least once a week from now on until the day I died. I took a couple of steps and found it really hard to coordinate at first, but it got easier as I went.

Elena slid up behind me and exhaled. I yelped in surprise and I'm pretty sure I jumped into the air. She made the wolf equivalent of a laugh, gave a shake of her head, and then took off. I caught on to what that meant, a 'follow me' gesture. I tried to talk, but only a few growls and dog noises escaped my throat.

We scented a deer soon after I caught up with Elena. At that scent, my brain was flooded with the need to attack, kill, eat. I charged, going as fast as I could.

Suddenly, something slammed into me right side, and I crashed into a tree. I looked around to see what attacked me; brain still soaked in the wolf's instincts, and growled. Elena gave me a 'what the hell do you think you're doing?' look and returned my growl.

I snapped out of it, and quickly backed down, cursing myself for that fuck-up. I was more careful this time. We snuck up on the deer, and eventually we where so close I thought it would be impossible for it to miss us.

Without any warning at all, Elena suddenly lunged at the deer, and it took off. _Great! _I thought. _There goes lunch…_I knew for a fact that deer were faster then wolves, and that in a contest of speed, a wolf would never be able to catch them. Trying to catch it now would be like an A-10 trying to catch up with an F-22A going full speed. It simply wouldn't happen. I reluctantly followed Elena however. I didn't want to be left on my own in a forest in an unfamiliar body.

Eventually, I heard the deer breathing heavily, and I could more or less see that it was slowing down. My vision was terrible. Another assumption I had shot to hell. I thought that the first Change would be the hardest one, and that my body would react to it as though I was a true wolf, but after that, I'd be fine, human vision, with an increased sense of smell and hearing. No luck there.

We started gaining on the fleeing deer, and I remembered another little tidbit from school: a deer puts all of its energy into the first few seconds of running, and thus it can't run for very long. Wolves however are distance runners, they can go for an extremely long length of time, and simply wait for the deer to become exhausted.

I smiled to myself. Maybe Elena knew what she was doing after all. I stayed back and let Elena make the kill. I was still a little squeamish at eating a deer… raw, and making the kill myself? No thanks, at least, not yet. Plus, I didn't know how dangerous it would be. One wrong move and I could end up dead.

So, Elena killed the deer, and I watched to see how she did it so when it came time for me to kill one, I'd know what to do. Once it was dead, Elena signalled me over, and we begun eating. You may find this a little weird, or disgusting, but despite being raw and extremely fresh, it tasted pretty good.

As I was eating, I was amazed that even though I had a massive breakfast, I could still fit a lot of deer meat in me. Although, I had to admit to myself that it was around lunchtime, but still…

When I was done, and we where walking back to where we had Changed, I started wondering how she and Clay made their relationship work. At times, I got the impression that they hated each other, or at least, Elena hating Clay, yet they seemed to get along. Or maybe it was because the day I came over, it happened to be one of their bad days.

When I Changed back, and got dressed, I asked Elena about it.

"It's hard to explain," she said. "And you may not understand, being a new wolf and all."

"Try me," I said, wanting to know if I was stuck with Bird Dog forever.

"He was the one that bit me, so yeah; there is a lot of tension and conflict between us. He made my life hell and I returned the favour ten times over."

"How come you don't get another lover?"

She laughed slightly. "I already tried that. It didn't work out."

"Clay killed him? I can see that."

"No, no, no, nothing like that. Philip, -that's his name- saw my Change one time, and we broke it off. With Clay and me… I can't describe it, and probably one of the big reasons I haven't looked for anyone else is because my wolf side is rubbing off on me."

"You mean you're monogamous?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Damn," I muttered under my breath.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Now I'm stuck with Bird Dog. Permanently. That's just great…"

When we got back inside, I asked Elena for a bit more detail on her life. I wanted to get to know her. Us being the only female werewolves on the planet, it made sense that we should stick together.

She didn't say anything about her childhood. Nothing at all, in fact, she started right around the time she met Clay. She told me how they met; fell in love, and ultimately how she became a werewolf. She then told me about a Mutt Rebellion the Pack had a few years ago, and how two Pack members got killed. Then there was a plot by a computer geek (kind of like Bill Gates) that nearly blew the supernatural community wide-open.

When she asked me for my life's story, I told her it. It's actually kind of boring and normal in a few places. It's only when I went to War College that interesting things started happening to me. That's where I learned to fly, met Bird Dog (a Junior Officer then), and where I had joined the Erusian Elite Yellow Squadron. After that, my life started to get interesting, their was the fall of the ULYSSES1994XF04 Asteroids, the construction of the 'Stonehenge' Anti-Aircraft Artillery cannons, the Usean Continental War, and the Erusian defeat.

Once my life's story was out of the way, I decided to start training with Elena. I was comfortable with her, and as such, we could easily work together. And again, again there was that whole female werewolf thing.

I went upstairs to my room and debated whether or not to call Bird Dog about this. I loved him, yet another part of me wanted to kill him in the worst way I could imagine. For now, I decided against it, and instead put all of my brainpower on how to tell my family about this little 'development'. I knew that I had to, but I couldn't think of how. 'I've been a werewolf for the past few days, and it was my boyfriend that turned me into one?' Yeah, like that'd work.

I knew that I had the opportunity to tell them in a few days from now, as I was going on leave after a nine-month tour of duty. My longest deployment yet. I knew they expected me back too, because they knew my schedule for when I was coming home, assuming I was still alive.

I couldn't think of anything, so I tried to picture what Bird Dog had said to his parents, then remembered that he didn't need to. They where dead and had been since 1994. The ULYSSES asteroids had killed a lot of people, Bird Dog's family included.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Moscow, Russia

1300 hours local

If you're a werewolf reading this, let me pass on a word of advice: don't try to drown out your sorrows or whatever in booze. It doesn't help, trust me.

High metabolism is good for a lot of things, but damn it! I wanted to, if even temporarily; forget about what I had done to Sarah. I knew that I had to go through the Replacement Air Group (or RAG) training because I had been away for so long, but I didn't feel up to it, so I found a bar in a bad part of Moscow, and tried to get drunk.

This was clear even after twelve shots of Tequila, so I decided to simply leave. I paid the barman, thanked him for the drinks, and left. Even through it was noon, the thick clouds overhead made it seem like dusk. If that wasn't enough, it began to rain, hard.

I got in my car, not even feeling slightly drunk, and drove back to base. Once I was there, I went into my quarters, and found my service pistol. I held it, feeling the weight, and made sure it was loaded. I was going to kill myself.

The pain of what I was feeling was simply too great, and the fact that I couldn't get drunk only added to that. I clicked off the safety, and held it to the side of my head. Then I decided to use a silencer to muffle the sound of the gunshot. I put it on, placed the elongated barrel against the side of my head…

And nothing happened. I couldn't pull the trigger. Which is odd when you think about it, for a living, I took the lives of other pilots like myself almost daily, and yet, I couldn't take my own.

I sighed, and put the gun away.

The phone on my desk started ringing. It was probably the Commander wanting to know what the hell I was doing, and why I wasn't taking the RAG courses yet. I picked it up and said: "hello?"

"Umm, Bird Dog, it's me, Sarah. Are you busy?" her voice sounded extremely awkward.

"Sarah? What-?"

"I just called to tell you that I've started my training, and I don't blame you for biting me. I had my first hunt a few hours ago, and I now know how hard it is to control the wolf's instincts. I know that the bite was a reflex action, and I just got… unlucky for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Elena also told me what happened with her and Clay, and well, at least you TOLD me about that before you bit me."

It took almost everything I had not to break down right there. "So, when are you coming back to Moscow?"

"Who knows? I'm just starting my training, so it'll be at least a few months. I'll keep you updated,+ though."

"Okay, Sarah. See you in a few months."

"Bye," she said, and hung up.

Just like that, I was back to my old self: collected, confident without being arrogant. It was like waking up for a dream. I went down to medical to ask for clearance to fly. My Shoulder still hurt like hell from when Sarah had damaged it, but that's all it was: just sore. I needed medical clearance to go into the RAG.


	10. Training

Chapter ten

Elena Michaels

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1549 hours local

After Sarah phoned Bird Dog, I started teaching her some of the basics of being a werewolf. She could Change, but not very well, so we started with that. All Pack members have to be able to Change on demand. There are a lot of reasons why, but the big one is this: most werewolves need to Change at least once a week, or they risk their body forcing one on themselves. Being able to Change on demand and actively doing it allows us to ignore the weekly cycle completely.

We went back out into the forest, and Sarah went into a bush to undress herself. We'd have to work on that to, removing her modesty. When we Change, we always end up naked one way or another.

Well, first things first. I waited outside the bush, telling her hints on how I deal with the incoming pain. After about 20 minutes of this, I wished I brought something to read. It must have been a fluke of some kind when we hunted. Either that, or she managed to learn how to Change, but didn't remember it. When it did come, I thought Sarah had been attacked by something like a snake. I went to look alarmed, then pulled back sharply as I saw black fur spreading across her body.

Once she was finished, she stepped out of the bush and gave me a 'now what?' look.

"Can you understand me, Sarah?" I asked.

She hesitated, and then nodded. Good, even though she was a little slow understanding human speech, she still could. That was normal.

"Do you know how to Change now?"

She hesitated again, then nodded.

"Okay well then, tomorrow we're going to do more a few things similar to this, but in the meantime, Change back and go rest up." She gave me a look that was clear annoyance, then turned around and went back into the bush.

When she was dressed again, she came out and we walked back to Stonehaven.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1835 hours local

When we got back inside, I really wished I had something in my wardrobe other then my uniform. I had been taken here in it, and now I was pretty much stuck with it. Elena offered for me to share some of her stuff, but I politely declined. Her stuff wouldn't fit me very well if at all.

So, we decided to go to the local mall. Of course, a person walking around in a military uniform would attract attention, as well as stick out very easily, but I didn't care.

The standard issue Soviet Union military uniform is more designed for practical purposes then anything else. It's semi-bullet proof, among other things. It's also pretty good stuff to wear at night. But I digress, anyways, we got into Elena's car (a nearly-dead Porsche) and drove off.

"Hey Sarah," Elena said as we drove towards the town. "I've heard from a few people at that military base that your nickname is 'Tomboy'. Is that right? Where did that come from?"

"Yeah, 'Tomboy' is my callsign. I got it from my days at War College. When I first joined in the year 2000, the Erusian Air Force was only then allowing women to join. I guess the pilots there decided that I was a tomboy for wanting to join. I'm not to sure exactly. That's the way first callsigns are: nobody knows where the come from, but for the most part, they stick with you for the rest of your military career."

Before we went into the mall however, we went to the bank so that I could get share bank accounts with Jeremy. I protested, insisting that I didn't need it, but Elena said that every Pack member had this too in case of an emergency. I reluctantly agreed, and was soon given a bank card to the Pack account.

Once that was taken care of, we went cloths shopping. Now, I'm not one of those women who spend most of their time crawling around malls. In fact, I try to avoid them, going only when necessary, and spending as little time there as possible. Especially now. Little kids where sticking close by to their parents, although sometimes, one wandered off to look at something. My instincts flared, and Elena grabbed my arm, snapping me out of it. We hurried after I almost lost control near the food court. The scent of meat, oil, and a myriad of other things almost took me over, Almost.

Elena realized her choice of a shortcut was a bad one, and pulled me towards the bookstore. The smell of the books brought up a memory that comforted me: being inside the National Library where my brother worked. That quickly calmed me down, and before long, I was in total control over myself again. We decided to finish our shopping as quickly as possible after that.

We got into Elena's car, but it broke down about half-way back, so we got out, and had to carry everything back to Stonehaven as neither of us had our cell phone on us so we could call a tow truck.

I asked her why she hadn't got her car repaired before we went, but she said that if she did that, she'd have to hand it over to Jeremy, and that might mean it coming back bright pink.

Once we got back, I went back into my room, I got dressed in my new clothes, and tried again to think of how to explain this to my family. I didn't bother asking anybody else, even making it seem like a hypothetical question. They wouldn't help me. They would have probably made some noise to Jeremy, and I wouldn't be able to leave even if I wanted to.

Captain' Bird Dog' Roy

Bear Valley, USA

1934 hours local

I had gotten partial clearance to fly. What does that mean? It means that I COULD fly from one place to another, but I COULD NOT dogfight, or enter the RAG. So I simply decided to show up at Stonehaven, and surprise Sarah.

I called a taxi cab, and told him where to go. I expected him to start asking me questions, but he didn't, which was a relief. I wasn't particularly fond of talking about myself. Not that I WON'T mind you, it's just that I've been in a few situations that I'd rather not share but if you get me going, and if I know you well enough, then I'll talk.

I arrived at Stonehaven at around 7:56 PM, and went inside. I was greeted with glares from Clayton, but I pretended not to notice, and went upstairs.

I smelled the air, and got Sarah's room. I approached, being very careful so as not to alert her that I was their and opened her door. She jumped when she saw me, then ran up close, tried to hug me, but I pulled back.

"Sorry, I would but, my shoulder…"

"Oh… yeah, sorry about that." she said when she remembered the attack in the Mess Hall.

I waved my hand, dismissing the comment. "It's okay, I deserved it anyways. Plus, you where still in shock about the transformation and that always makes bitten werewolves a little nuts. Believe me; I went through the same thing."

"So, what are you doing here?"

"I was SUPPOSED to go into the RAG for all that lost time I spent here, but I'm still not medically fit for it, so I thought I'd come by and stay for a while."

She nodded, and we changed the topic to something a little more fun, well for us anyways: discussing Air Combat manoeuvring and how to make the most out of certain positions. For most pilots, this is review stuff, but Sarah and I liked to try and invent new manoeuvres to give the other guy a run for his money.

Eventually, I asked: "Hey Sarah, I know you had your first hunt, but what about your first run? Changing and then run as a wolf in the forest?"

She shook her head.

"Would you like to? It's actually pretty fun, especially if you have someone with you. And besides, I haven't Changed since I bit you, and that was about six days ago."

She shrugged and said: "sure,"

We went outside and Changed in separate clearings. Once I was finished, I pushed my muzzle through into Sarah's clearing, and pulled back sharply as I saw that she was still Changing. I blocked out the sounds of her Change with the sounds that forests make.

I waited for a few minutes, and then I was suddenly tackled to the ground. I yelped, more from shock then anything else, and then I got up, and saw Sarah with a canine smile across her face.

We started to playfully wrestle around, then she suddenly took off. I decided to give her a 15 second head-start, and I waited until I couldn't restrain the wolf's instants to run any longer, which was about 14 seconds.

I managed to catch up to her a few times, but she kept shaking me off. For a moment, I pictured an aerial battle, and how everyone is always looking for that one position that equals a kill.

Then, suddenly she disappeared, and I took a quick look and sniff behind me. Damn! There she was, right behind me! I tried to shake her off, but she managed to catch up to me, and tried bring me to the ground again.

I anticipated that, and stopped, turned, and rammed her at the best speed I could manage from a dead stop. We both fell, me from Sarah's superior speed, and her from my slightly better weight.

I thought every tooth in my mouth was going to shake loose from that jarring impact, or that my already damaged shoulder bones would break. Neither happened, instead I got up, shook my head, and tried to help Sarah up. It was a bit difficult, seeing as how I'd never done that before, but I grabbed the loose skin and fur around her neck, and pulled her up.

She seemed to be as dazed as I was from that impact, but she shook it off, and we continued running, this time through in more or less formation. We continued running until we saw a small family of rabbits. We snuck up on them and managed to get two of them, one for each of us, but I simply pushed mine towards her. 'If you want it, you can have it.'

She took it, and I went off to get something to eat while Sarah was busy. I was about to go off, but she looked up from her meal and whimpered. 'Don't leave, please.'

I turned around, and went back to join her. She pushed the half-eaten rabbit carcass back towards me. 'If you're hungry, then you can have it.' I took it, and chowed down on it. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I was practically starving.

After I ate, I thought I heard a growl, and I looked up. I could just see Elena, poking her head through a nearby bush. Sarah and I got up, and I looked at Elena. I could more or less sense tell what she was thinking: 'that's not fair! Clay and I spent YEARS trying to get back together, and they manage to get back together in a few days!?'

I pretended not to notice that, and Sarah and I went away, looking for some privacy, although, I knew that that was a near impossibility. With Elena around, generally, Clay wasn't far behind, and he never saw anything as private. Personally, I thought he'd make a good chameleon spy, but I kept that to myself.

We got lucky though, and he either wasn't around, or didn't take any interest in us. The sun was now beginning to set, and I was getting a bit tired. I made an over-exaggerated yawn, pretended to fall asleep, turned my head in the right way, and saw the confusion in her eyes.

I repeated what I did, she got it, and we went off to find a place to sleep. A perfect end to a pretty miserable day, just what I needed.


	11. Family matters

Chapter eleven

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Outside Stonehaven, Bear Valley

0445 Hours local

I woke up in a state of confusion, at a very early hour. I thought I heard something, and had woken up. Military life does that to you, you learn to wake up at the slightest sound that may be the prelude to an attack.

I tried to clear the fog around my brain and looked around. I was entangled with a wolf. I thought of my escape plan in microseconds. I pictured the exact way I would catapult my legs and take off running at full speed. The wolf would be too sleepy to fully know what was going on, and I'd use that to escape.

I shot up, miscalculated, and landed on my tail. _Tail? _I thought, my brain still not working properly. _Since when do I have a tail?_ I took a look at myself, and my brain cleared up. I was a werewolf, and I had fallen asleep this way. Right, I had to make these little adjustments.

Bird Dog lifted his canine head, still half-asleep and made a groaning sort of noise and motioned for me to come back to sleep. I hesitated, and then accepted. The sun wasn't even out yet, and I was dead tired. I went back over to him and fell asleep again.

I didn't wake up until about 8:30 AM. Or at least, that's what time I guessed it was. The air was still cool and a bit damp, and the sun was in the more-or-less right position. Another throwback to my military training, you learn to make the best with whatever you got on you. In some cases, that would just be your eyes and your wits.

When I did wake up fully, I stretched for a while fascinated in the way my muscles moved in this form. Then I followed Bird Dog who was finishing up with his stretches. No, we don't have to do 'The Regulation 50 Jerks'. It's just that stretching is a great way to start the day.

We went back to where we had Changed the evening before, Changed back and got dressed. As we made our way back, Bird Dog asked: "you know Sarah, since you're still adjusting to this whole new life, would you like to read the Pack history book? The Legacy?"

I hit him on the arm. "You're telling me this now? Of course I want to read it!" my stomach growled and I laughed slightly. "After I get something to eat that is."

We went inside and started to make breakfast for us, but Bird Dog insisted that just in case anyone came, we'd be making breakfast for the whole Pack. Now, I can cook, but not very well. Most of what I can cook is simply EDIBLE, and it doesn't taste particularly good. That is, when I cook from scratch.

I was frying some bacon, but mostly thinking about what to say to my parents. I didn't know how they'd react, but I had this rotten feeling that something bad was going to happen when I told them. What if-

I smelled some smoke, and I realised that in being distracted with my thought, I allowed the bacon to burn. I yelped, put on an oven mitt, and took the frying pan to the sink where I dropped the burnt bacon in the sink before the smoke detector was activated. After that, I let Bird Dog take over the cooking, and I simply sat back and looked at a few cook books.

Once breakfast was done with, I followed Bird Dog into the study and watched him bring out the Legacy. I started to read it, and was completely engrossed in it a short while later. Other cultures and ways of looking at things simply fascinate me. I suppose if I hadn't chosen the career path of a fighter pilot, I would have been a cultural anthropologist or a sociologist. But, I wanted to fly and nothing in the world would drive me away from it.

I took a few breaks here and there, being very careful to put the book back where Bird Dog had gotten it from. Although these breaks generally amounted to nothing more then a few glasses of water, or something to eat or bathroom breaks a couple of times.

Elena Michaels

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1539 hours local

I went upstairs to the study mostly to find out what Sarah was doing up there most of the day. When I opened the door, she didn't even look up to see who had entered. I got closer and saw that she was reading the Legacy. I didn't expect this.

Actually, scratch that, I DID expect it, just not that soon. I knew Sarah needed some background information as soon as possible, but I just never expected it to be this fast. Or maybe I was looking at things from my personal experience. I had been locked in the cage downstairs for several months after I'd been bitten, nearly insane from what was happening to me.

I tapped her shoulder, and she jumped, obviously completely engrossed in the Legacy.

"Whoa! Elena, you scared the bejuses out of me. Don't do that!" she said, after she knew that it was me.

"Well you should actually listen for when the door opens, or at least smell who comes in!" I laughed.

"Hey, I'm not as experienced as you, okay?" she said defensively. "Cut me some slack!"

_Where did that come from? _I thought. "What's wrong?" I asked, wondering what was going on.

She signed and said: "sorry, I shouldn't have taken it out on you. It's just that I need to tell my family about what's happened, but I can't think of any way to do it."

Since my biological family was dead, and I didn't keep in touch with any of my foster parents, I had no idea what Sarah was going through. But then, I never heard Bird Dog mention anything about HIS family either, and when I asked him about it, he said that he didn't want to talk about it.

I decided to change the topic right there, so I said: "what about Bird Dog? Has he told his family?"

She shook her head and said: "his family's been dead for a few years now. They got killed when the ULYSSES1994XF04 Asteroids crashed into the Earth in my universe. That's why he never talks about them, in Erusia, our home country, family is extremely important. In fact, it's one of our central values."

"But what does this have to do with you telling your parents that you're a werewolf?" I asked, still a bit confused on that.

She sighed, and said: "They have to know about this. I usually visit them whenever I'm on leave, and I can't disappear for a few hours every time I need to Change."

After a short silence, I left, and let her continue reading the Legacy. I went downstairs and found Bird Dog watching some news report. I sat down next to him and said: "Bird Dog, Sarah just told me about your parents, and a few parts of the Erusian culture, is it true that Sarah has to tell her parents about what happened to her?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she needs to tell them, and I need to be accepted into their family. Although, I don't think that'll be possible after what I did."

"That was a reflex action, you said so yourself you had no intention of turning her into a werewolf. They've got to understand that it wasn't your fault."

He sighed and said: "I don't think so, Elena. And besides, you aren't Erusian. No offence, but you aren't. You have almost no idea of our culture." He got up and walked away after that.

I followed him, trying to get some more information out of him, but he sent inside the study with Sarah and closed the door. Now closed doors aren't a problem for werewolf hearing, so I listened in. I didn't hear anything, and then saw Bird Dog come back out much quieter then the way he came in.

"She's not in there, she must be asleep in her room." he whispered.

We went downstairs and I managed to start getting more information on the Ace Combat universes' countries and their cultures.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1732 Hours local

I woke up in the guest room of Stonehaven, almost wishing that the last few weeks hadn't happened so I wouldn't have to tell my parents about me becoming a werewolf. No such luck.

I got out of bed and started to get my overnight bag together. I was leaving to tell my parents about what had happened to me, and that meant going to Farbanti, Erusia. I heard a knock on the door and said: "come in," not bothering to look up.

"Going somewhere?" Elena asked.

"Yeah," I said, still packing. "I'm really sorry, but I have to tell them now. I've waited long enough, plus, they're expecting me by tomorrow. They know when I'm supposed to go on leave, and if I don't show up, they'll start to ask questions and then they'll come here."

She sighed, obviously knowing a meeting with my parents and Clayton would not end well, and said: "okay, I'm doing this as a favour to you. Where do you need to go?"

"Just take me to the Russian Embassy in New York City or to the bus station at least. I'll take care of the rest from there."

"What do you want me to tell Bird Dog?"

"Tell him the truth, the same with the Pack so they don't come looking for me."

She nodded, and gave me a few minutes to finish packing. I did, and got in Elena's car which had been towed, fixed up slightly and put back in the garage.

She drove me to the bus station without saying a word, and left me there after I bought a bus ticket to New York City. When the bus came, I boarded it, and I was getting nervous.

A few hours later, I was in New York City, and I went immediately to the Russian Embassy where I showed my ID, and told the staff where I wanted to go. You see, inter-universal travel is a bit new for the Soviet army, and it was just starting to be allowed for civilians although it was highly discouraged, as it cost a lot. However, if you where in the military like me, they made exceptions for you.

I went inside the miniaturized Chronosphere, and was instantly transported to Farbanti. As soon as I got there, I felt the Earth's gravity pull me down a bit harder. That was natural, as my universes' version of Earth is a bit bigger and is denser then most other Earths, and as a result, it has more gravity.

I missed that, being born into what the Soviet Union calls a 'high-gravity world' didn't make me feel quite normal somehow. Perhaps it was the fact that I could take almost 10 Gs before passing out in a dogfight, and how I could lift slightly more weight then most people native to that universe.

I called a taxi cab and went directly to my house. Now, if you're not an Erusian, when I say 'my house' I mean my families house. You might think this is weird, but in Erusia, it's not uncommon for people to live with their parents for most of their life.

I went in, and looked around. I checked for my brother, Neil who was assuming he wasn't at work, would try to tackle and tickle me into submission. It was something we used to do as kids. Completely harmless, until now at least.

I went to check the clock, and saw that it was 1:00 PM, Usea Central Mean Time.

And by the way, just in case you're wondering, yes, time does flow differently in other universes. I don't think I can explain it, although the Command and Conquer universe's version of Albert Einstein would be able to, if you could understand him and had about a day to kill.

Before I opened the door, I took a sharp breath, pushed my wolf side away, then went in. I took a sniff of the air and was bombarded with scents from my childhood; my parents cooking, my brother's books from the National Library and a myriad of other things that made my knees buckle. Not so much from the shock, but from the memories that those scents brought up, human memories…

I went to check the schedule for the day. Before I was in the military, everyone would write down what time they worked on a washable calendar so we knew when we'd all be off work. Today, they all seemed to get off at around the same time, but I knew that they would take a while to come home due to where they worked.

My mother, Catharine worked at the port as she was the harbourmaster directing the flow of incoming sea traffic, my dad, Eric worked at the Bank of Usea, while my brother worked at the National Library along with Amanda, his wife and my Sister-in-Law. There was also something squished in that I had to spend a few seconds working out. 'Amanda's Visit, 4:00 PM.'

_Shit! _I thought. _Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse._

If Amanda was coming, than that meant that Cera was also coming. Now, don't get me wrong, I LIKED spending time with my niece, but the memory of that little girl I killed during my first Change in Moscow brought bile to my throat.

I shoved it down, and went into my room to cry. Was this how my life was going to be from now on? Being afraid of my own parents, even if they knew what I was? Not being able to horse around with my brother without running the risk of Changing and killing him? Not able to hug anyone without breaking their ribs, or kiss them without spreading this? And if I did try to keep it hidden, could I show any emotion at all without revealing my true nature? Would I ever be able to spend time with my niece again? But what about if I told them? How would they react? Would they constantly be afraid of me, or worse, would they actually start hating me for letting this happen?

I didn't know the answers to these questions, but soon other, darker ones entered my mind. Would my parents still see me as their daughter? Would I still have a brother? Would I have ANYTHING from my human life at all? Another part of my brain said that I would, but that made it worse. Would they see me as some kind of freak?

A while later, I was out of tears, and I pulled myself together. Once I did, I stared at the bed sheets and finally decided to wash them to get rid of whatever my tears contained as it might spread my 'condition'.

I put the sheets in the washing machine, and waited in the living room for my brother to come back from his workplace. He did at around 4: 10 PM, and I heard: "hey Mom, Dad, you here?"

"Hey Neil, I'm in here!" I called out.

"Sarah?" he asked, and came running in. when he saw me, he went up close and hugged me as hard as he could. I returned it, but I tried to be gentle because I didn't know my own strength at the time.

"Sarah," he said, after he pulled back. "It's great to see you, wow, you look great, and how've you been?"

I managed a smile, and said: "pretty good, the Soviet Union is trying to make us feel welcome as one part of a whole team now. It's still kind of weird that I'm flying with people not just from Osea, Yuktobania, ISAF, Belka, and Sapin, but now I'm flying with Russians, Americans, and a lot of other nation's pilots."

We continued talking for a while until my mom got home. When she saw me, she looked me straight in the eye and said: "Sarah, it's so good to see you. I've been worried about you ever since ISAF and the Soviet Union beat us in the Continental War. You ARE still okay, right? They're not doing anything unethical or-"

"Yeah, mom, I'm fine. Don't worry so much about me. I can take care of myself you know." I said referring to the time I was almost mugged and killed, but I had managed to kick the guy in the crotch, and knock him out.

She shook her head at my hotheadedness and sighed. "I wouldn't be a very good mother if I didn't worry, Sarah."

We then started to catch up on what was happening, with me and here in Erusia. Of course I left out my being a werewolf. It would be better to wait until my father was here too.

Eventually, he came in, and he also brought in Amanda, and Cera.

"Aunt Sarah!" she cried, and ran towards me. I instinctively reached out and hugged her. Then, it hit me. It started with my fingers turning into claws. They sank into her back, and she pulled away, screaming in pain. I tried to stop it, but it was too late. The Change was taking over, and I screamed as my body shifted.

I turned, still fighting against the pain of my Change to see my Family's faces. There where a lot of things there: fear, loss, grief, panic, disbelief, and many others. My face started to push out into a muzzle and I managed to get out an 'I'm sorry," before my vocal cords where to canine to form human speech. The final wave of pain nearly caused me to black out as it always did, and then it was over.

Cera, now terrified at what I had become, screamed. I turned, snarled and leaped!


	12. Meet the Parents

Chapter twelve

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

2056 Hours Local

I woke up screaming and covered in sweat. Someone was touching me! I slashed at the figure with my clawed hand, and heard a yelp of pain. The lights were off, so I couldn't see who it was I was attacking, but I heard: "Sarah! Calm down! It's me, Bird Dog! You where asleep!"

Once I managed to turn on the lights, I saw Bird Dog with several cuts across his face from where my claws had slashed him. The smell of blood made my instincts flare, but I shoved them back down.

I wasn't to sure of how exactly I got into his arms, but I made no move to break away. After waiting until I was finished crying, he asked: "what did you dream about?"

I sniffled, and said: "my family and what would happen if I don't tell them about what's happened to me."

"Its okay, Sarah," he said, soothingly. "It was just a dream, it wasn't real. Everything will in the morning. You're gonna be-"

"Dammit I'm not fine!" I yelled suddenly. "I felt like I wanted to rip my niece's throat out!" I nearly threw up at the memory of that little girl in Moscow, and now the other Pack members were coming in, asking what was wrong.

I told them about the dream I just had, and tried not to break into any more tears. That dream terrified me in a way I had never thought possible because it struck one of the things that was really close to my heart.

If you had come to me before I got bitten and told me that I'd be afraid of turning into a wolf and destroying my own family, I'd have thought you where insane, and depending on where I was, I'd either call an insane asylum, or I'd alert the base personnel of you had have you removed. But now…

I reversed the partial Change on my hand, and tried to tell everybody about Erusian culture and why I had to tell my parents about what had happened to me. They didn't understand at first, and Clay still didn't understand even after Bird Dog and me had told him twice, but the others did, and they'd let the two of us go to Farbanti, after I had finished reading the Legacy.

I was stalling for time, I knew, but I had to know more about what happened to me first before I turned a potentially disastrous visit into a slaughter. It took me three full days to finish it, without breaks, and I took an extra day for planning what the best way to tell my parents of what happened.

After we decided on what to do, I called my parents, letting them know the news that I had a boyfriend, and we both went to the New York City embassy, and where transported to Farbanti. I called a cab, and gave the cabbie directions.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Farbanti, Erusia

1656 Hours Local

Ah, the infamous 'meet the parents' phase of a relationship, although, unlike most cultures, we Erusians take it extremely seriously. Family is extremely important to us, and someone new entering the family must be thoroughly checked out. That is at minimal, them knowing everything about you, where you live, work, what your own family history is, and a lot of other things.

When we got out of the cab, I paid the driver, and we both took our overnight bags out of the trunk. We approached, and Sarah opened the door, and walked right in. I waited outside until I got approval to enter from Sarah's parents who where waiting at the door. When I saw that I had, because her father made a quick, sharp gesture with his right hand. That said that he approved of me so far, and I could come in and start answering the various questions that would be thrown my way any second. Sarah was going to, as is the custom, be talking to her mother about me and the relationship we where having.

As I stepped in, I lowered my gaze to the floor as a sign of respect, and thanks for being let in. I carried my overnight bag all the way in, and only put it down when I sat down in the living room couch. A chair had, in preparation for this, already been placed in front of the couch, so I could look the father in the eye as he asked away.

I looked up, and stared directly into his eyes, letting him know that I was ready to answer any question he had completely truthfully. His first question was the one that is always asked first: "have you told your family about this relationship with my daughter?"

That question sometimes ended relationships on the spot if the answer was no, because that showed that you had disrespected your own family, and so they would not allow you to become a part of theirs.

Being without a family, I said: "my family is dead, I'm afraid. They have been for 16 years now. The ULYSSES Asteroids killed them when I was 16." I didn't like to talk about that to much. My foster parents had done their best to make me feel welcome as a part of their family, and it might have worked in some cases (if I was nine or so) but I was grieving, and they understood that, and generally left me alone. I'd never overcome that grief, but I did my best to push it down as far away from me as I could.

He leaned forward, put his hand on my shoulder, and said: "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Not as sorry as I am," I said, forcing back the tears that came whenever I thought about them. "You would have liked them."

He nodded, and then continued to ask the various questions, where do you work? How long have you known Sarah? Things like that.

Me and Sarah had decided to tell her parents at the exact same time, synchronizing our watches to the second, and tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As I explained this, Eric (Sarah's father's) face started to turn a little red. I'm not talking about blushing, I mean turning red from anger. Once I stopped explaining, the house was deathly silent, with the exception of Sarah's explanation to her mother.

They came down a few seconds later. Catharine and Eric went into the kitchen to discuss what we had both told them, secretly hoping that what we had said was a joke or something thought up by one of us. I only wished it was as they came back in.

"Are you joking?" her father asked, his face now less red.

I shook my head. "I know this might sound hard to believe, but I swear to you that that's the truth. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but I'm afraid we'll have to show you what's happened to your daughter."

"What do you mean, 'show us'?"

"Exactly that, but it would be better for all of us if we did this in a forest."

"Why?" Catharine asked.

"In case we lose control, there are other things in the forest we can eat. Just trust me, it's better for all of us in the end."

"You mean, you eat… people?"

Sarah shuddered at that, remembering her first Change in Moscow. I put my hand on her back, and steadied her before she told them about that little bit of information.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Four kilometres Southwest of Farbanti

1713 Hours Local

We where driving towards a forest we knew and used to walk in. we all sat in silence. I was preparing both mentally and physically for what I was about to show my parents and the incoming pain. I didn't want to do this, but it had to be done. I REALLY didn't want to have my nightmare come true on me.

We went down a few little-used paths, and sometimes going completely off them a few times to insure that we wouldn't have anybody stumbling over us, or worse, seeing me while I was Changing.

Since Bird Dog was the more experienced wolf, he'd stay human and explain to my parents what was going on.

I stepped into some undergrowth, and when I couldn't see anybody, I undressed, and went down on all fours.

_Come on, Sarah,_ I thought. _Be a big girl. You can do this, just don't scream. Let them believe that this is painless. _

After the Change I stepped out into the small clearing, holding my canine head down, then raising it as I concentrated to make out the conversation that was going on.

"—we be sure that's Sarah and not some dumb wolf that you brought here?" my father asked.

"Look at her eyes and tell me that's not your daughter." Bird Dog replied.

My mother approached me, and my instincts flared.

_No! I'm not going to attack her! I'd rather DIE then kill my own mother!_

"—do that, Sarah's fairly new for a werewolf, so she hasn't got total control over the instincts just yet."

My mother stayed there for a few seconds, then pulled back, put her hand over her mouth in a gasp, and asked: "Sarah? Is that you?"

I nodded, going down onto my stomach. I REALLY didn't want them to see this, but there was no other way. If there was, I would have used it, but there wasn't.

My parents came over to me, this time, I was ready for the surge of instincts and I quickly suppressed it. I felt a hand going through the fur near my neck, and this time, I snapped in reflex.

Thankfully, my mother, the one that 'petted' me, pulled her hand away before my teeth sank in. I stood up sharply, horrified at what I had done, and dove into the bushes.

What did I just do? This wasn't me, I had NEVER snapped at my mother, not even verbally! I was becoming a completely different person now. One who nearly killed her own mother, or worse… could wolves cry? I had no idea, but I soon found out as something wet went down the sides of my canine face.

After what seemed like hours, but it was probably a few seconds, I stepped out, and saw that my father was choking Bird Dog, and my mother was propped up against a rock outcropping, crying to herself.

I ran in between my Father and Bird Dog, and managed to separate them. Bird Dog fell backwards gasping for air, while my father just glared at me. He started to talk, but I missed some of it because I wasn't ready for it.

"—but if you can, I've GOT to kill this monster! Just look at what he did to you!"

I held my ground, growling slightly. 'If you want him, you've got to go through me first.' I hated myself as I was doing this, forced to take my lover over my parents, but my instincts where too strong for both to let Bird Dog die, or to let myself attack my own parents.

I was living every Erusian's worst nightmare: forcing to choose between someone else, and my parents. This was only made worse by the fact that if I let my father kill Bird Dog, then he would actually LET my father do that.

"Sarah," my father said, authority dominating his voice. "Step away. NOW."

I dug my claws into the ground for better grip in case he charged at me. He didn't, he just stood there, as if waiting for me to step away so he could kill the monster that made me like this. As far as he was concerned, Bird Dog wasn't even remotely human, he was a demon who turned their daughter into something that she wasn't normally: an animal, a beast of myths; a werewolf.

This standoff lasted until my mother got between my father and me, and said: "That's enough! Eric, I won't have you become a murderer out of pure rage, and Sarah… turn back to a human. We're going home."

I went back into the bushes, Changed back, and got dressed to see my father glaring at Bird Dog with his finger pointed at him. He had, by this point recovered, but he was still on the ground in submission.

"If I EVER catch you near my daughter again, I swear to God, I will kill you, got that?!" my father demanded.

Bird Dog nodded, but didn't say anything, and then he turned sharply away from him and we went back to the car. On the drive home, the car was as deathly silent as it was on the way up. Did they see me as some kind of freak? If they did, I wondered how my brother would react. He worked all day long with works of fiction that had among other things werewolves in them. How would he react to finding out that they where as real as the sun and the moon?


	13. Werewolves in Farbanti?

Chapter Thirteen

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Farbanti, Erusia

1845 Hours Local

After Sarah's parents drove off, I managed to walk all the way back into the city and rent an apartment. The room was tiny, but I didn't care. I was too busy trying not to fall apart right then and there. I had lost Sarah. We'd never be able to do anything together, with the exception of Changing and flying.

I flopped myself down on the bed, and stared at the ceiling, remembering all the good times we had before either one of us was bitten. We flew over the skies of this very city two years ago, and we had even fought the legendary pilot Cipher, the Demon Lord. We both got shot down, naturally, but it was still a great time we had.

I knew Sarah would be trying to convince her parents to accept me for what I was, but I knew that that would be almost impossible. I had turned their daughter into a wolf. I knew that they'd still see her as their daughter, but her life wouldn't be the same.

Eventually, I guess I drifted off to sleep. I dreamed I was in wolf form, chasing two people, a man and a woman. They looked familiar, but I couldn't tell. Not with wolf's eyesight from that far away. It wasn't the kind of chasing that happens to me when I'm hunting, and the wolf takes over. This chase was totally within my control, as though I was chasing somebody I knew not wanting to attack them.

I kept running, and I managed to close the distance between me and them. I took a deep breath trying to catch the scents that those two where putting off, but I found out that I was downwind; my scent going towards them instead of the other way around.

I caught up with one of the figures, the woman, and pinned her to the ground. She started laughing as she went down, and as I started to lick her. As I was licking her, I got a good look at who I was chasing: it was my mother.

I sometimes had dreams like this, but in them, I was human and playing tag or something similar to that with them. I knew how these dreams ended too when I woke up.

But I didn't WANT to wake up. I was happy here, playfully wrestling with my father now, even though he was losing. A human wrestling against a wolf is not gonna win, especially when that wolf has a human mind. He grabbed me around my neck, and now had me in more or less a headlock, but I managed to slip out of it, and more or less jump on his back.

This dream was lasting longer then most of them, because a few minutes later, we where all sitting down on the grass, breathing heavily. I felt a hand go through the fur between my ears, and I turned.

"Necromancer," my father whispered before they disappeared. No! I was waking up! I tried desperately to bring them back, to stay in this dream world for just a little longer, to see my parents for just a few more seconds, but it was too late.

I shot awake, crying. That was the farthest the dream had ever gone. We never got to talk. In fact, it usually ended just after I managed to catch up with my mother. What was that word that my father said before the dream ended?

Necromancer? I knew the term, someone that can awaken the dead, make zombies, ghosts, and other undead things appear, but what did that have to do with anything?

I checked the time, 5:12 AM. Those dreams always did that to me, they woke me up REALLY early, and I couldn't get back to sleep when they where over. I sighed and went outside to get something to eat from a fast-food place.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Farbanti, Erusia

0512 Hours Local

I felt my heart sink when I woke up. Nothing was wrong, beyond the fact that I had nearly destroyed my family. I looked at the clock, and saw the time, 5:12 AM. I went back to sleep.

When I woke up again, my brother was standing over me with a tray. He smiled and said: "morning sleepyhead,"

I looked at the tray then said: "Breakfast in bed? You shouldn't have." I grabbed a piece of toast, and bit into it. As I was chewing it, I checked the clock, and now it said: 10:59 a.m.. I had slept in late. REALLY late, and especially considering that I'm an early riser, I wondered why I had stayed in bed this long.

As I saw the time, I asked: "how come you're not at work?"

"I don't have to go in until noon today. There was a bit of a blackout last night and not all the computers are back up and running yet."

I finished up with breakfast then said: "so, did mom and dad tell you about what's happened to me?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but don't worry, Sarah. To me, you'll always be my little sister. And besides, I think it's kind of cool."

I looked up. "What is?"

"You, being a werewolf. I mean, do you know how many different werewolf myths there are? How many different variants of the same thing?"

I shook my head. "How many?"

"A lot, trust me, in fact, would you like to come to work with me today? I can show you some of the things the National Library has on them. I just want to help narrow down what kind of werewolf you are."

I shrugged and said: "I'm not doing anything else today. Umm, could you leave please?" I was only wearing a few pieces of underwear, so I needed to get dressed. Now, even though I went into the forest recently and stripped, I wasn't going to do that in front of my brother. He left, and I got dressed.

I tried to avoid my parents until it was time for my brother to go to work, and I said that I was just going to spend the day with him, catching up on lost time. As we were walking towards the National Library, I caught a whiff of something. It didn't belong in a city, and after a few seconds, I knew what I smelt.

Werewolf.

I stopped, and took bigger breaths, trying to figure out if this was a Pack Member, or a mutt, but it was too faint. My brother stopped, and said: "what's wrong?"

"Nothing, never mind it's gone now. I thought I smelled something, but I can't be sure."

He looked confused until I said: "I have a better sense of smell then most humans, no offence, and I thought I smelt another werewolf."

"Really?" he asked. "Interesting, that'll help me narrow down what not to show you."

He kept walking, and I followed. When we got to the Library, the scent was there again, stronger this time, but not enough to let me have a good ID on who the scent belonged to. I decided not to mention it this time, and I kept walking. When we got in, the computers where starting to get back online, and my brother led me around the Library. He kept passing me books as though he had hours to study where they where. He kept putting them onto my waiting arms, and eventually, I had a fairly good sized stack of books that would probably keep me occupied for most of the day.

The books where from all genres, and I didn't know what to read first. Once I reached a table, I put the books down, and Neil left me alone to read. Generally, the things I read didn't have much, if anything to do with real werewolves. It was the typical 'half man, half wolf' thing, and I put those aside not interested in them anymore. Some of the things I read had some similarities, but only one book was right on.

The book had no name, author, or date on it, but I read it anyways. From what I could tell, this book was printed during World War I. it didn't say that exactly, but it did say something about 'the Great Human War'. My universe's version of WWI happened in 1878 and lasted for two years. Anyways, the more I read, the more I got to feel that this book was actually true.

This book was dead-on with what I was, weekly Changes, higher senses in human form, transforming into a total wolf, and it was also clearly made by a ruling class or something, because it often looked down on most other werewolves.

I was so engrossed in reading, I didn't notice anybody was behind me when a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped, and turned sharply, trying to figure out who had scared me. It was Amanda, my Sister-in-Law. She looked at what I was reading and said: "hello Sarah, it's good to see you again."

I nodded, and calmed down. "Sorry, you just scared me. So, how are things?" something about this situation didn't seem right.

"Oh good, Cera's a handful though. She's saying that you have the coolest job in the world, and all that stuff." She smiled.

"Listen, Amanda, there's something I have to tell you." I said. I knew this was coming, but I had no idea how she'd react if I told her what had happened to me. Amanda was born and raised in Oured, the capitol of Osea and there culture is different then the Erusian."

She sighed and said: "I already know, Sarah. A werewolf's nose is better then a humans' but don't worry, I went though exactly what you're going through right now." She shook her head. "It's a miracle you survived, you know that? Most bitten werewolves die a few days after the bite. Either the transformation kills them, they get torn apart by the wolf that did bit them, or they go insane and kill themselves from the shock. You got lucky, Sarah. Really lucky. Don't worry, the Pack will take you in soon enough once I let the Alpha know about you."

My eyes widened, and I said what was probably the stupidest thing in my whole life. "So, you're a werewolf?" I mentally kicked myself, and took a whiff of her scent. No perfume of any kind, some deodorant, and she had the telltale scent that marked a werewolf. I said something a bit smarter now. "How long—"

"About a few years now. I was vacationing with Neil in Yuktobania just before the Circum-Pacific War started. I was taking a walk in the woods, and then I was attacked." She shuddered. "Frankly, I'd rather not talk about it."

I nodded, and said: "Does Neil know—"

"No, I know I should tell him, but I'm afraid of what he'll think. And what will Cera think? Will she want to be a werewolf too?"

Neil came over a few seconds later, and kissed Amanda on the cheek. "How's it going Sarah? Find anything good yet?"

I nodded, and said: "This thing seems to be dead-on with what I am. You should look into it."

He examined the book I found closely, then said: "oh yeah, this thing. You know, we're not to sure where it came from. I'm guessing it was one of things that the Fascists seized. I mean, that's the best guess."

Amanda nodded then said: "umm, Neil, there's something I need to tell you." And she started to explain what had happened to her. When she was finished, she was in tears, and we both tried to comfort her.

"Well, why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"I was afraid of what you'd all think of me. I'm not brave, I'm not a solider like your sister here. I'm a librarian, not a warrior. I wasn't brave enough to tell you. I wish I was a stronger person, but I'm not."

"Amanda," I said. "Sometimes, I'm not that brave. Every time I see a missile heading towards me, I nearly wet myself. Every time I go in for mid-air refuelling, I'm so worried that I just let the aircraft's computer do it for me because I can't stop my hand from shaking. When I'm in the base, I pretend to be strong like nothing worries me, but inside, I'm still scared."

My little speech seemed to have the opposite effect of what I was hoping for. She started to cry even harder, until eventually, she was out of tears. We took her outside for some air. Now there was a REALLY big problem. How would Neil and I tell our parents about what happened to Amanda over a year ago? And more importantly, how would they react? They had practically gone ballistic when Bird Dog and I had told them about what happened to me, and that was only a few weeks ago. But for Amanda, it was a little over a year ago…

The shit was about to hit the fan now…


	14. Library Mayhem

Chapter fourteen

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Farbanti, Erusia

1345 Hours Local

What my father said in my dream was eating away at me. I knew from the Interracial Council that Necromancers where real, but I didn't know too much about them. What were my parents trying to tell me? Could I somehow contact them even after all these years? And if so, how would they react when I told them everything that had happened since they died, or did they already know about what had happened?

I honestly didn't know. Like I said, I didn't know much about them, or how they could help me. Supernaturals and my home universe where two completely different things, and there was no way my parents could have known about necromancers. Interuniversal travel simply didn't exist until the Soviet Union came up with it a year ago, and even then, they had only just visited the Otherworld Universe only a few months ago.

I sighed to myself, and accepted reality: my parents were dead, and there was no way I could contact them. That dream I had was just some neurosis born of the childhood trauma of my parent's death, and the part about them saying 'necromancer' was just a part of me that wanted to talk to them again that had been there since their death.

I bought a copy of the _Farbanti Times_ and looked for a psychiatrist. After my parents' death, I refused to talk to one mostly because my grief was overwhelming me, but also because I didn't want that guy to write some book on, or about, me.

And who knows? Maybe I'd be able to talk with him or her about the relationship problem I'd been having with Sarah. Of course, I'd have to have STRICT doctor/patient confidentiality, but I knew that that was always assured, no matter how crazy the patient was.

Oh sure, the military had psychiatrists, but they where mostly concerned with getting their patients up and flying, sailing, or fighting again as soon as possible. Plus, civilian psychiatrists generally, according to statistics, had better success rates then most military ones.

Eventually, I found one. Not a challenge in a city the size of Farbanti, but there where only a handful that specialized in cases like mine; parental loss and relationships. I suppose I could have hired two, but I'm not that kind of guy.

I called the receptionist, and booked an appointment. Nothing fancy, just a one hour time slot and see if he wanted me back for further analysis.

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

The National Library, Erusia

1350 Hours Local

Neil and I took Amanda outside for some air. My brother covered for her saying that she fainted, which she did sometimes because of her low blood pressure. Once she settled down a bit, I asked: "Amanda, you mentioned something about a Pack. What is that?"

She looked at me, and then began. "The Pack is exactly what it sounds like; a wolf pack with the Alpha at the top and everyone else below him." she stopped then said: "do you know who bit you? All but about two werewolves are in the Pack, and I have to tell the Alpha about you." She sighed then said: "looks like I'm not the only female werewolf anymore. You have NO idea what it's like for me back in Yuktobania."

My eyes widened. Supernautrals? HERE? How the…? I stopped looking stupid long enough to say: "Amanda, there's something I need to tell you. You know about that Interuniversal travel thing the Soviets got set up?"

She nodded.

"Well, recently, we were in one universe to mostly keep things from getting out of hand as the Soviets solidified control there. Turns out, there was a lot more to that universe then we first thought. My flight lead, Captain Patrick 'Bird Dog' Roy was shot down and got bitten by a werewolf, and a few months later, he came back to base.

While he was on a run, I was taking a walk in the forest outside Moscow. He bit me, and well… here I am."

She looked almost the same as I did when I found out what Bird Dog had become when he showed me that Pack trick of a partial Change: a combination of terror, and disbelief. Eventually, she regained her composure, and said: "well, obviously we need to have our two Packs meet sometime very soon. I'll arrange it with my Alpha, and you do the same for yours. Would you prefer it to be in this universe, or in the other one?"

I shrugged, and said: "I don't think it really matters. And Amanda, you REALLY need to tell Cera what happened to you sometime soon. If you don't, you'll risk killing her, and believe me, you don't want that on your conscience."

She looked at me confused and then said: "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look Amanda, my first Change was hell. You probably know how that feels though, anyways, when I got into the forest outside the Airbase, I attacked, killed and ate three campers, before I became unconscious." I shuddered, and almost gagged on the memory. "One of those campers was a little girl, probably no older then Cera, and I killed and ate her before another werewolf stopped me."

"But I can't!" she yelled. "If she knew what I've become—"

"Cera's just a kid!" I yelled back. "To her, you'll always be her mother. Just tell her that this is a secret and that she can't tell anyone! Do you want her to die?"

She looked horrified as I said that, and yelled: "Of course not! You want to know what I want. I want to just wake up one day next to my loving husband, and realise that all this was just a nightmare! That's what I want! I didn't ask for this! This body isn't me! I hate this! I just want to be normal again!!"

She was getting hysterical, and Neil tried to comfort her, but she grabbed him, and flipped him right over her head and held him in a choke hold.

"You see? Before I was bitten, I'd never even be able to attempt this! Now I can kill people without breaking a sweat!"

She released Neil, and he ran towards me, taking some form of cover. I stood there, trying not to be afraid, but I don't think I succeeded to well because she said: "You're afraid, I can tell! I can smell your fear right now!"

I remained calm and said: "Look Amanda, I don't want to hurt you, but if you make me, I WILL fight you. You know I have some marital arts training from the military, so don't make me fight you."

Then I saw something that no werewolf should ever see: Amanda had begun to Change out of the fear and hysteria. I gasped, and checked the surroundings. No people, good. Sort of… the National Library was positioned near the forest in Farbanti's early days, but since then, as the city developed, the Library was now only left with a small section of wilderness almost like a National Park, but a whole lot smaller. Amanda could run here, but not for long, eventually, she'd go into the main city, and I didn't want to THINK of the damage she could do in this state of mind.

I turned sharply away to give her some privacy while she Changed. Once I knew she was finished, I turned around, and saw my brother staring at the brown wolf that was once his wife in shock. No real surprise there, even to an experience werewolf, Changing is a private moment and nobody should EVER see it. this was only enhanced by the fact that Neil was just told about this literally only a few seconds ago, and he was still in a state of shock from THAT.

I could tell that he was about to run, but I grabbed him by the arm, and whispered into his ear: "don't. if she sees you run, she'll chase you, and in all likelihood, kill or bite you. Just stay here, I'll take care of this."

Amanda still wasn't quite used to the way her body moved when she was in wolf form, as if she was denying herself of what she had become. Not that I blamed her, with the disastrous meeting with my parents, I wanted to be human again too, if only to make it up to them.

I stood my ground as Amanda snarled at me, exposing her steel-grey teeth. I knew what this meant: it was a challenge. Essentially, a wolf's way of saying: 'you and me. right here, right now!' I knew I was in a little bit of trouble because a wolf against a human is not a fair fight, but I sincerely doubted that Amanda would give me ten minutes to Change so we could have a proper fight. We both began the dance of intimation; circling around one another, waiting for the other one to either back down, or lunge at the other one.

The only way to win was to catch the opponent about to lunge and evade it, lunge without warning, or intimidate the other one so your opponent backs down. Amanda shifted her weight to her hindquarters, and I knew that she was about to lunge. She did, I was ready for it, but was too slow to block her entirely. Her fangs sunk into my lower right arm, and I cried out, more from the shock of her actually attacking me.

I quickly recovered, and delivered a hard punch to her sensitive muzzle. She came off my arm, but not before ripping a fair amount of flesh off along with it. the pain was very sharp, but I had to concentrate. I was attempting the Pack trick of a partial Change. Not an easy thing to do when you've got a nearly crazy werewolf (in wolf form, I might add) attacking you.

I dodged a few of her attacks, and managed to get it to come after a few tries. When my hand/paw was ready, I waited until she was in the air from a jump before ducking under her and slashing at her side. I saw four red lines appear on Amanda's side as she flew past me. now she was pissed.

She roared at me and charged again, but I wasn't ready for it this time, and I was tripped by her, and for a moment, I found myself staring right into her eyes only a few deadly centimetres away. They weren't her normal hazel colour; they were (literally) bright red. Her rage was making them completely bloodshot. She was in pure, animal rage now. There was no trace of humanity in her movements.

I managed to get her in a headlock, and force her to the ground using a pressure point to induce a massive amount of pain in a microsecond without causing any damage. I held her head away from any part of my body she could easily reach in that position, and brought my mouth right against her right ear.

"Amanda, calm down, right now." I said in as soothing voice I could muster. "You can't get out of this; I've got you right where I want you. Just calm down, calm down, calm down… you're Amanda Nakano, Sister-in-Law to me, and wife to Neil, my brother. You work at the National Library along with him, and you've got a child that you named after me. Her name is Cera, you love her very much."

She was bucking sharply trying to throw me off, but I was having none of it. If she threw me off, she'd attack my brother and I would not allow that to happen.

Amanda Nakano

Outside the National Library

I had lost control over myself, and by the time I knew I was Changing, it was already too late to reverse it. What Sarah had said scared me right down to the bone, and what was worse, I knew she was right. If I had waited to tell Neil and Cera about what had happened to me, they'd both be killed.

Once the Change was finished, the wolf took over, and I leapt straight for the closest living thing around me: Sarah. She tried to block my attack, but my teeth sank into her flash, and the taste of human meat and blood set my brain on fire. With pure bloodlust surging through my brain, I kept attacking.

I missed most of my shots, and I got really frustrated. _STAY IN ONE PLACE!_ I thought, frustrated, while another part of my brain started demanding I stopped right now. I ignored that, and jumped at Sarah again. This time, she dodged it, and I felt a sharp pain slash across my side! I roared in pain and shock before slamming onto the ground.

I managed to trip Sarah and for a brief second, I stared right into her eyes only a few centimetres away. That other part of my brain now started to cry. I guess because it wasn't in control of my body, either that, or because it had given up.

No matter, I was about to attack again when suddenly, a rock was thrown at my head! I turned sharply, and saw an adult human backing away. Then without any warning at all, I was slammed into a headlock!

I tried to get out of it, but Sarah's grip was too tight. She held her head close to my ear and I tried even harder to break away. She started to talk into it, but I wasn't listening. Eventually, I stopped trying to break out of the headlock I was in, and started to listen to what she was saying.

When I did, the realisation of what I had just done was a crushing blow to me. Sarah let go when she saw that I was more or less my old self again, and she said: "Neil, go back home, and get some clothes for Amanda. I'll stay here and make sure she stays here."

He nodded and took off. I had to desperately control myself then, and I almost lost. I was shaking like a leaf, but it wasn't from the cold. It was from realising what I had almost done: I had almost killed Sarah, and my husband, or worse. While Sarah was already a werewolf, Neil wasn't and I had almost attacked him. I started to cry, or at least, tears started streaming down my muzzle at the mere THOUGHT of what would happen if I bit him.

True to her word, Sarah stayed with me in case something similar happened again. I didn't Change back, mostly because what I was wearing was shredded when I had Changed. She took a seat at the picnic table, and motioned for me to join her. I did, and just in time: some people were walking through the park.

Sarah reached down and started to… well I guess the right word is 'pet' me. she also started saying something, but I didn't bother listening. It was just some variation of 'good girl' repeated over and over. I was relived when Neil came back with some of my stuff. When he did, I grabbed it in my mouth, stepped into a bush, and Changed back into my human self.


	15. Bird Dog's past

Elena Michaels

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1410 Hours Local

Something was wrong. Sarah and Bird Dog should have come back by now, or at least called. After a few minutes of waiting, we went to New York City, and soon after that, we were in Farbanti.

Since we were new to this universe, let alone this city, we split up and walked in different direction, staying in touch with our cell phones. Eventually, Clay and I saw Bird Dog walking alone on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. I took a deep sniff of the air, and smelled nothing beyond the usual smells of a city: asphalt, gasoline, car exhaust, people, and lots of other things.

We pushed the button on the stoplight, and waited. Eventually, the light turned green, and we managed to intercept Bird Dog. He saw us coming, and when we caught up with him, he said: "Hello Clay, Elena, what brings you to Farbanti?"

"We're looking for you," I said. "You didn't call or come back so we started to worry." I took a look around. "Where's Sarah? I don't see her around."

He sighed and said: "I don't know where she is. The meeting with her parents didn't go too smoothly. They forbid Sarah from ever being near me again. I'm lucky if they didn't file some kind of restraining order against me yet."

Clay look confused and said: "Don't they know that's impossible? You two work together, and your practically mates! Elena tried to stay away from me before, but it never quite worked out did it, darling?"

I shot him a dismissing look and said: "let's not go into that right now, but Clay's right. You two practically lived together on the base before you got bitten, and from what I can understand, Sarah doesn't want to change her job."

Bird Dog nodded. "Yeah, I know that, and her parents know that too, but to them, I'm some kind of demon. I took their daughter away from them, and made her a—"

Clay gave him a hard look. "Don't even THINK the word 'monster'. If her parents can't see that she's happy with what she is, then why is she still LIVING with them?"

There was another sigh from Bird Dog. "It's not that easy I'm afraid. I'm sure they'll eventually come around, but I'm not holding my breath."

I pulled out my phone, and called everyone else in the Pack, letting them know we found Bird Dog, but not Sarah. After I hung up, I asked: "Where do you think Sarah would be?"

He shrugged. "If she's not at her house, then probably at the National Library. At least, that's what I'm guessing."

I hailed a cab, and the three of us got in. Bird Dog gave the driver directions, but told him to stop at Dr. Wolfe's office. I thought it was a bit ironic, but I didn't say anything. When I looked at him, he said: "I've got a psychiatrist appointment soon and the office in on the way there."

He stepped out of the car when we got to the office, while Clay and I continued to Sarah's house. When we knocked on the door, there was a slight hesitation and eventually someone, who I could only guess was her father, opened the door.

"Yes?" he said. "Do I know you?"

I shook my head and said politely: "no sir, but we're friends of your daughter. Can you tell us where she is?"

He glared at us. "Terrific, more 'people' like you. Well, I told her 'friend' and I'm telling you: Stay away from Sarah and my family."

"Look, we really need to know where Sarah is. She's practically family to us and—"

"Don't EVER say that about my daughter. I'm warning you, either leave my premises immediately, or I'll call the cops."

Not wanting to be arrested, we both left, and tried a different approach: we would smell her out. Not the hardest thing in the world to do, but hard enough in a city. Although, there where, as far as we knew, no werewolves other then us.

We caught her scent, and followed it to a library of some kind, occasionally stopping to backtrack to regain the scent. Once we got there, we followed it outside to a park and eventually we found Sarah and two other people. A man and a woman. I smelled something else as well, but my brain wouldn't believe what it was.

The woman smelled like a werewolf! But that was completely impossible! Werewolves where just native to my home universe, what the…?

The woman turned around and looked panic-stricken for a few seconds. I saw brown fur start to sprout from her hands, but Sarah quickly turned, saw us, and grabbed a hold of her, and said: "Don't worry, Amanda. These are just friends of mine. They're from my Pack. It's okay, just calm down."

The woman named Amanda calmed down, and said: "I'm sorry, I've been a little on edge lately. My name's Amanda, this," she pointed to the man on the ground. "Is my husband Neil. Sarah's brother."

Neil didn't look up. He just sat there, looking sombre. To me, he looked like one of the Librarians here, but I couldn't be sure. I took a sniff, and he had that musty odour that usually comes from books.

Amanda was also looking very sad, as was Sarah. Eventually, I said: "what happened here?"

Sarah told me the whole story of Amanda losing control over herself, Changing, and attacking as well as about the Pack in this universe as well. When she was finished, both Clay and I had the same expression: 'are you fucking kidding me?'

After I recovered from the shock of being turned into a werewolf, I was 'brought up' I guess is the right term, to believe that there was just ONE pack, my own. The same was true for Clay.

Neil finally looked up and said: "why didn't you tell me about this before? You've been a werewolf for over a year now."

Amanda went close to Neil and hugged him, tears streaming down her face. "I'm REALLY sorry about what you saw, baby, I was just too scared. You know how easily I get scared, even before I was bitten, and I was afraid that if I told you, you'd reject me or something. I'm still having a bit of trouble accepting that fact; I had no idea how you'd take it. Please, don't be angry with me."

Neil sighed. "I'm not angry, just disappointed." He pulled her closer and hugged her. He started to whisper, but with werewolf hearing, we were able to hear: "you can tell me anything, Amanda. You know that. It'll be okay, I'll tell Cera about what happened, and you can go to this meeting in Yuktobania."

She slowly pulled back and said: "thanks, but be gentle with that, and if she asks to become one, just tell her that mommy said no."

He nodded, and said: "you better leave soon. The next flight to Cinigrad won't be here until tomorrow morning."

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Dr. Wolfe's Office, Farbanti

1415 Hours Local

My appointment was scheduled for 2:15, but somebody was taking a little longer then that, easily eating away into my hour. Once that person was finished, I got up and went it. I saw that like in all those stereotypes, a couch was there, and I asked: "Do you want me to lie down?"

Wolfe shook her head, and said: "Not if you don't want to. So, let's start at the beginning: what exactly happened to your parents? Tell me everything, what you saw, what you felt, everything."

I tried to be strong as I dredged up the memories of that night. I was at a High-School dance, my school had one every month, and as I was dancing, I heard a defining 'boom!' an asteroid passed right over the city of San Salvacion where I lived at the time. Everyone rushed to the windows or doors of the gym where it was being hosted, and the image of the fireball from the heavens completely destroyed my night vision. A second later, the fireball slammed into the town with enough force to send Earthquake-sized shockwaves through the ground, even though it was at the opposite end of the town. I remembered the news broadcasts that one student in my class did for a thing called 'Current Events' (Essentially, find a news topic, and explain it to the class, stupid I know but what can you do?)

The ULYSSES1994XF04 Asteroid was on a collision course with the Earth, although, scientist discovered something troubling: the asteroid, in passing around Mars, had disintegrated on that orbital slingshot, and had broken up into several pieces. Then, a chilling thought entered my mind: Which city district had that hit? Sixteen years ago, San Salvacion was divided up into four main areas as opposed to the three nowadays; Old Towne, New City, San Salvacion International Airport, and the Basin.

The Basin was roughly in the middle of the city, and was in a basin formed by a glacier as it passed over (hence the name). The Basin was where my family lived, and I hoped to God that they got out in time, even though I didn't know where the Asteroid hit.

I ran out of the gym, and headed straight for The Basin first. When I got over a hill and looked down, I saw a vision of hell itself: Flames rising all over the place due to gas mains that caught fire, houses and building blown to rubble and random pieces of wood, cars upended and smashed as though a gigantic child had thrown them around.

I went down that hill, and that was the longest part of my life. When I got down that hill, the first thing I saw was a person; I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, walking towards me. Most of their skin was simply gone or charred black. There were no eyes, ears, hair, mouth or nose; all had been burnt off. The person reached me, and then collapsed, and I saw hundreds of shards of glass and splinters stuck in their back.

I somehow managed to keep going, and I weaved past the fire crews, and medical personnel. There was no one left alive, they had all either been incinerated by the blast, or had died a few minutes later from God-only-knows what kind of injuries. I thought I heard a scream from close by. A very young scream, almost like a baby's. I went to dig through the rubble, desperate to find somebody, ANYBODY that survived the hit.

When I dug through the rubble, I saw a baby next to its mother. The mother was dead, head smashed in from a heavy TV, and several pieces of wood, rock or metal I couldn't tell. It looked like she had dived over her child in protection. I picked the child up carefully, and called the medical people over. That child I saved later became my adopted brother.

The smoke was choking me by the time I got to what was left of my parent's house. I tried to call for Tom, my dog, but the smoke and dust and heat stole the words from my lungs and I would up coughing. When I managed to recover slightly, I went in, hoping against hope that even after what had happened, my family would still be at the dinner table, or watching some TV show as if nothing had happened. No such luck.

When I went to open the door, I almost burned my hand. I wrapped my hand around my shirt, and tried again, but the door wouldn't budge! I kicked it, and I heard a 'Crack', but the door held. I tried one last time, backing up, and I charged at the door!

It came lose with a flurry of splinters, and I dove inside. The devastation was inside here too. Fires had come and gone, leaving this place a deathtrap of burnt-out wood. I made my way carefully upstairs, to see if my baby brother was still okay, but when I got to his room, I heard nothing. Nothing at all, not even the lullaby machine that my parents always kept on for him when he went to sleep.

Thinking the worst, I did another shoulder barge, and came into a room completely devoid of life: no crib, no bright colours, and no semi-annoying stuffed animals that squeaked when you hugged them, no nothing. There was nothing that remained of my baby brother's room, not even him.

Fighting back the… well, there's no word invented that describes what I was feeling then, I made my way carefully back down stairs to find either one of my parents, or my dog. When I heard some whimpering near the kitchen, I ran to it, and threw up almost immediately; there where my parents on the ground, dead.

I could tell because my mother was impaled by what was once a support beam that was safely inside the drywall, and my father's head was smashed open by large chunks of the drywall.

I heard the whimper again, and I dug Tom out of the rubble. He was in bad shape though, and was clearly dying. I hugged him, and tried to say nice things in his final moments, but all I could do was cry. Once he did die, I went over to my mother's body, and cried harder then I had ever cried before or since.

Eventually, the rescue teams found me, and hauled me away from what was left of my house. That was the last time I ever saw my parents again, except for in my dreams…

I snapped back to reality, and saw that I was crying. My hands where over my face, and I was crying. I always did that when I remembered what happened that day. Hell, anyone would. What I saw was pure horror. The only thing that could come CLOSE was when I was bitten by that Mutt.


	16. a Farbanti Run

Chapter sixteen

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Farbanti, Erusia

1420 Hours Local

"You know," I said as the four of us made our way back to my house, as Neil had decided to go and tell Cera about what Amanda had become, "Maybe we shouldn't do this. My parents are already on edge from when Bird Dog and I told them I'm a werewolf. Maybe we should just do something else."

"Like what?" Amanda asked. "Unless we go to the airport and wait until our flight comes in, I have no idea what we could do."

Elena shrugged. "When's the last time you Changed, Sarah?"

"A few days ago when Bird Dog came back to Stonehaven," I said, slightly confused. Then it hit me: a run. That was just what we needed: a run to take our minds off things and just have fun.

Amanda looked a bit scared when she clued in. "But I really think it'd be best if we went to the airport. You know, get the tickets now and wait for the plane to land?"

I pulled out my cell phone and called the airport. Amanda tried to convince me otherwise, but I motioned for her to be quiet. Once I had purchased plane tickets for seven, I thanked the ticket agent and hung up. When I looked over to Amanda, she looked worried.

"What's wrong?"

"You guys can go on ahead. I know what you're planning--a run, right?"

I nodded. "It's actually pretty fun, Amanda. Besides, it's just what we--and especially you--need right now."

She shook her head. "I've still got stuff to do at the library, so—"

"Come on, Amanda, we both know that's not true. Besides, you can just join us later when you're done."

Tears started to form around her eyes. "I've already Changed this week, Sarah. Please don't make me go through that again."

So, that's what this was about. She didn't want to Change any more times then once a week. From what I understood, it was no wonder she was so emotionally frail. Amanda was always easily frightened, and for most werewolves who only Change once a week when the need gets too strong, they get irritable or angry very easily. Now, like I said, I don't know much about Changing, but it seemed possible that Amanda would, as the need to Change grew, become more frightened.

I put my hand on her shoulder and said soothingly: "look Amanda, you've got to accept what you are, there's no way out of this. you've been a werewolf for about a year, right? Well, I've been one for only a few weeks, and already I've managed to fight and win against you. That's not a good sign."

She put her hands up and covered her face. "What do you want me to do?"

Still as soothingly as I could possibly be, I said: "Simple. Just go on a run with the rest of us."

Elena nodded. "Sarah's right, there's no way you can ever get back to who you used to be, and it's pointless to try and fight it. Believe me, I tried. The only thing left to do now is to just find a balance between you and the wolf. The harder you try to push it away, the harder it'll push back. You can't win. I'm sorry, but you just can't."

Amanda finally gave up and sighed "Okay, I'll go with you. But please, let's not kill anything. I can't stand killing things."

That was Amanda also. She had no stomach whatsoever for killing. Even when we were at the movies, she'd always vote to go for the comedy or the romance movie. She was very squeamish when it came to action flicks, and she often ran out of the theatre during a horror movie.

Anyways, I called Jeremy and let him know where we were just in case, and then we walked to the forest. Once we got there, we went in deeper so we wouldn't be interrupted and then we found separate clearings.

I begun my Change, and bit down hard on a stick to prevent me from screaming. Once I was finished, I walked out, and found that Clay and Elena where already finished but Amanda was nowhere to be seen. Now THAT was not good. I had managed to finish Changing before she did, and I was only a werewolf for less then two weeks. Once Amanda came out, I acted out that we should split up. I thought Amanda would be more comfortable with me, and having two other experienced werewolves in very close proximity might scare her.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

1424 hours

It was nearing the end of my session with Dr. Wolfe, and there would be no better time to say what I had to say. Once I explained what I was, and after I showed her, she definitely thought another few sessions would be a good thing.

Once our time was up, I walked out of the office and just decided to go for a run. It would give me some well-needed recuperation time. Talking about what happened the day the asteroids hit always took a lot out of me, and it always made me want to kill myself, although from past experience, I knew that I could not, and would never be able to pull the trigger.

I called a cab to get me to the forest. Once the driver let me off, I went deep into the forest, found a clearing, and Changed. Once I was finished, I stretched, and took a deep breath. After a couple of seconds of relaxation and forgetting about what happened that day, I smelled something interesting.

Werewolf.

But the wind, even though it was blowing the scent in my direction, dispersed the scent so much that I couldn't tell who caused it. I followed the scent for a while, until I could make it out clearly enough.

Deffinantly a werewolf, although NOT one I recognized. My mind was spinning. A Mutt? HERE? In Erusia? That's just not possible unless… No, none of the Pack would EVER do that, but Sarah… No, she'd never attack anyone.

No, scratch that, she'd never attack anyone and let them live afterwards. We both knew what it was like to become a werewolf, and we had no intention of letting anyone else go through the same treatment. But there was the nagging question towards my actions in Moscow: why didn't I kill Sarah? I had put her into this new magical world against her will, and now it was too late to do anything about it.

Oh sure, the Soviets have the capability of time travel, but they don't use it. EVER, under ANY circumstances. It's got something to do with the space-time continuum. I don't know.

Anyways, I managed to catch up to the new wolf, and the wind was still blowing in my direction. Good, unless I made a noise, this mutt wouldn't know what hit her.

Wait a second: HER!? I recoiled in shock at the realisation that this wolf was a female. But how the hell…?

She was running behind Sarah, as if trying not to enjoy the forest as a werewolf should. I stayed in the underbrush, and started sneaking up on her. Eventually, she stopped altogether, and barked. Sarah heard the bark, and turned around. When the brown wolf managed to sniff out my hiding place, I jumped out, and stood there, growling at her.

I only had two mutt fights up to that point, but I felt that those two had been at less then one hundred percent. Well, this brown wolf would be my first real fight, and as such, it was going to be a fight to remember.

All first fights are like that. To this day, I can still remember the very first air battle as though it happened only yesterday.

Anyways, the brown wolf looked simply terrified for a couple of seconds, then her eyes turned red, and she leaped at me! Not ready for the attack, I was slammed down, and she was now on top of me, going for my neck. I twisted, and squirmed evading her attacks, until I managed to get in a position where I could wiggle free.

I did, and bit at the brown wolf's front left leg and went to the right, dragging her off balance. Obviously, this one isn't fully trained yet. A smart wolf would attack me while I was clamped on. Damn and I thought I was going to have a challenge.

I let go after the she had fallen down, but she got back up again. Although, I noticed something else: she wasn't quite used to the way her wolf body moved yet. That might be another break. Being more experienced, or at least better trained, I could easily outmanoeuvre her.

I was about to go in for another attack when Sarah tackled the brown wolf to the ground, and started growling ferociously. The brown wolf tried to snap at her, and throw her off, but eventually, the blood-red eyes faded into a sort of hazel-ey colour (I couldn't tell from my position and with wolf vision.) and she went submissive.

When the brown wolf stopped attacking, Sarah let her up, and she looked at me with perhaps a trace of embarrassment as she passed by me. Sarah gave me an angry look, but that faded seconds later, and she nuzzled me. 'I missed you.'

I returned the gesture, and then pointed in the direction of the brown wolf, and grunted curiously at her. 'Who is she?'

I knew of course that Sarah couldn't answer in wolf form, but it she'd remember it when we Changed back and met up again. Sarah and I took off to find our new friend, and sure enough, we found her chowing down on… well, I guessed it was a raccoon. The brown wolf looked startled to see us, and for a second looked like she was going to run away, but Sarah gave a reassuring wolf-grin, and she calmed down.

_Geez, _I thought. _Talk about the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. This wolf, whoever she is, looks like she's about to faint whenever I get near her. _I shook my head. _Not to mention how nervous she looks just standing there. _I took a sniff, concentrating on the brown wolf's scent. _But she's old. Well, older then me. About a year or so. So why does she act like she's completely new to this? she had to have gone through at least a couple hundred Changes by now…_

I shook my head again, and Sarah nudged my on my right side and gestured with her muzzle towards the brown wolf. She looked scared… again. Sarah tried her reassuring grin, but the other wolf started to back away slowly, as if not wanting to make any sudden movements.

I thought of something, and tried it: I laid down on my belly, and lowered my ears flat against my head. I also let out an exaggerated yawn, and closed my eyes. Taking gentle breaths in, I knew that what I was doing was working. The scent of her fear was now lessening, and it eventually went away. A few seconds later, I heard her coming towards me, and eventually sniffed me.

Almost tentatively, she pulled back, but she came in again. almost like an animal smelling another one that's new. Eventually, that stopped, and I was nudged again on my side. I opened my eyes slowly, giving the brown wolf time to adjust and then slowly rose. Once I was filly up, I turned, saw the brown wolf, and licked her muzzle. I really wanted her to trust me.

In the base, everyone there treats me like I'm some kind of God and either fears me, or tries to get onto my good side as though it can earn them a promotion. I HATED that. Sarah knew that, and as such, she treated me just like she would any of her CO's. a little attitude sometimes, but generally nice, and self-assured.

I hated carrying that baggage around with me wherever I went. That wasn't a real issue in the Pack; because of everyone else having years of experience over me, but to see it here, in another werewolf was just damn irritating.

Once I gained the brown wolf's trust, we continued our run until we had to get back. I went back to the clearing where I had Changed, and I eventually met up with everyone again, including a brown-haired woman that had the exact same scent at the brown wolf.

I smiled and said: "You must be the new huntress I met a few seconds ago in there." I held out my hand. "Captain Patrick 'Bird Dog' Roy."

She took my hand, and shook it. "Amanda Nakano. I'm married to Sarah's brother."

I pulled back and nodded. "So, where is everybody else?"

Elena filled me in on the situation, and pulled out her cell phone again. she called the airport, and got another ticket on the next flight to Yuktobania.

I called another cab, and got him to take me first to the apartment I rented, and then to the airport after I had everything packed. (this was only about a few seconds because I hadn't had a chance TO unpack.)

Once I was at the airport, I collected my ticket, and went through Airport security. Once that was over and done with, I went to the waiting area for our flight to arrive.


	17. Double Pack meeting

Chapter seventeen

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Farbanti International Airport

0730 Hours Local

After falling asleep in the airport waiting for our flight, I woke up at around 7:30 AM, and saw that our flight was in. I quickly woke up everybody else, and we all went to the airport terminal.

Soon after that, we boarded and we were airborne shortly after that. Personally, I hated flying. I know you might think that's strange considering my line of work, but I hate it. Or maybe I should say I hated flying as a passenger in this big and slow sitting duck. This was made worse by my new heightened senses, and the fact that I had a VERY easily scared werewolf not very far away from me. Bird Dog was sitting next to me, and he too looked as though he hated this as much as I did.

Frankly, I was relieved when the plane landed in Cinigrad. The first thing we did when we all got out of that plane was to go and get something to eat. The smell of that airline food somehow managed to completely kill my appetite. Something, I sensed, that was not easily done for a werewolf.

After getting something decent to eat, we rented two cars one for Bird Dog, Amanda, and me and the other one for the rest of the Pack. Amanda would drive leading the way to the Ouroboros Mansion.

Ouroboros… I had heard that name before, but where?

"Hey Bird Dog," I asked. "Have you ever heard of Ouroboros? It sounds familiar from somewhere."

He shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, it's some kind of cooperation. Don't know what they DO though."

I heard Amanda laugh nervously. "Maybe I should have told you about that too… sorry. Well, Bird Dog, you're right, it IS a corporation, although not in the conventional sense."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's… Well, the sorcerers there call it a Cabal."

"A cabal?" Bird Dog asked. "I've heard of those, but why would they let werewolves live near them? Sorcerers HATE werewolves, vampires, half-demons, and all the other races. The only reason they let Half-demons work for them is because they need them for security."

Amanda turned and looked at Bird Dog strangely for a moment, then went back to driving. "Not in this universe. Remember the Belkan War?"

We both grimaced. "Don't remind me," he said.

"Well," she continued. "The supernatural population was decimated during that, along with the Continental War, and the Circum-Pacific Conflict. It was already low to begin with BEFORE the war, but afterwards, it had been cut in half. Along with those other wars, there were only a handful of supernaturals left alive.

"Eventually, the last remaining sorcerer Cabal, Ouroboros, contacted what was left of the Inter-racial Council and gave them a choice: join us and get protected, or risk annihilation by the humans and their wars. Most of the remaining supernaturals agreed and they now work for the Cabal each race taking the job that suits them best. Werewolves are given the main job of security along with Internal Affairs."

We were how driving along a country road, and I was wondering how much further away the Mansion was. To kill some time, I asked: "Amanda, if it's not too personal, may I ask how you got bitten in the first place? I mean, if you don't want to--"

"No, it's okay. Besides, I suppose I'll have to tell your parents eventually. Well, at the start of the Circum-Pacific conflict, I was taking a vacation in Yuktobania. I originally intended it to be only a one-week deal, but because of the war, I was 'detained' to remain in country.

"I was on a bit of a break from the constant questioning from the government's goons, so I decided to take a little forest walk to calm down. When I was about to turn back, I was attacked by what I thought at first was just a normal wolf, and I tried to run. His teeth though had sunk into upper right arm so it was already too late. As I was running, more wolves jumped out of their hiding places, and went to fight the one that attacked me.

"Those were the Pack werewolves attacking one mutt. This one was one of the few supernaturals that refused to join the Cabal, so the pack was forced to keep an eye on him. They had sent him several warnings about his killings, but he either didn't listen, or care.

"Anyways, after the mutt was killed, I lay on the ground waiting for them to kill me, but they didn't. The Alpha, Peter Eckhardt, took me to the Mansion and from there…" she shuddered at the memory of her transformation.

"I was blacked out for most of the time, but in a few places when I woke up, I heard him saying something about if I was going to die, then I'd die with at least some shred of dignity.

"I managed to survive the bite, and after that, I spent the next two months locked in a cage." She shuddered again. "I was driven almost completely insane, and I still haven't fully accepted the fact of what I am yet." She looked at me, and then said: "How did you do it? You've been a werewolf for only a few weeks, and you've already got no problem being that way. I've been a werewolf for over a year now, and I'm STILL having difficulty accepting the fact that I need to Change weekly."

I shrugged. To tell the truth, I never really thought about it. After the shock of the transformation, I hated Bird Dog for a couple of days, but then I just broke down with my resistance.

We sat in silence for the rest of the way, until we finally came to the Mansion. It did indeed look werewolf-friendly: no big, loud machines, a large forest nearby with deer grazing near the forest edge, lots of space everywhere…virtually identical to Stonehaven.

We drove towards a gate where a guard was sitting in a booth as if waiting for us. I took a glance back, and saw the other car following close behind us. As we drove up to the guard station, he turned, and said: "Are all these people with you, Ms Nakano?"

She nodded. "Yeah. We're expected by the Alpha pretty soon."

I inhaled, but I smelt nothing on the guard. Nothing at all. _Vampire, _I thought. _Looks like Amanda was right, this place DOES have all the races. _

Once we all got out, and stretched our legs from being in the tight space of the rental cars for so long, a person in an executive-style suit came forward and greeted us. He spoke with a heavy Hispanic accent that sounded jarring in these surroundings.

"Ah, so you must be the Pack Amanda has told us about. Greetings, I am Peter Eckhardt, Alpha of the Pack in this universe." He looked at Bird Dog and then me. "Hmm… you are Erusian, no? What are you two doing with this Pack?"

Bird Dog, being my senior as a werewolf and in the military, answered that. "We're with the Soviet Union Military. On a fairly recent mission to a new universe, I was shot down and bitten. Once I came back to Moscow, I accidentally bit Sarah. She was taken in by the Pack in that universe, and we were here to tell her parents about what I did, but…"

Eckhardt nodded, and said: "I see, well, I suppose we'd better start the meeting. Where is your Alpha?"

Jeremy stepped forward and said: "That would be me. You'll have to excuse the rest of my Pack, but this is a new experience for all of us."

Eckhardt nodded again. "As it is for us. Come; let's go inside so you can meet the rest of my Pack."

We followed him inside, but slowly. It's a part of werewolf nature, we're always a but paranoid. Once we were inside, we sat down, and I looked around at the other Pack. There were about 10 werewolves there, including Eckhedrt and Amanda.

The two Alphas started discussing various strategy in case the Soviet Union made any attempt to contact them and ask them if they wanted to join. Bird Dog and I stayed out of the whole discussion. Not because we were new, but because we represented a three-way connection that our bias might interfere with.

We were both born in the Ace Combat universe, the one we were in now, we were both turned into werewolves and we were members of the Otherworld universe's Pack, and we where both in the Soviet Union Air Force.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Ouroboros Mansion, Outside Cinigrad

1534 Hours Local

I felt like a real outsider. I had connection to three things, but I couldn't voice my opinion without something contradicting something else. For a brief second, I actually considered joining the other Pack, but I dismissed that. Sarah might not have seen my point of view, and I wouldn't join the other Pack if she didn't want to. Besides, I felt that her friendship with Elena was too strong to prevent something like that from happening.

Eventually, the meeting was concluded, and my Pack went back into Cinigrad, and we managed to get the return flight to Farbanti. Once we were back, we all decided that it was time to leave the Ace Combat Universe once again, so we all went to pack up.

Sarah took me back to her parents' house where I was met by her father, glaring at me. I'm SURE he was about to kill me when Sarah went in-between the two of us again, and said: "Look, Dad, you can't stop me from seeing Bird Dog. We work together on a daily basis and when I need to turn into a wolf, we do it together. I'm sorry, but you CAN'T separate us."

"Bur Sarah, just look at what he did to you! He took you away from us! He turned you into this!" he said.

I knew what he meant. Sarah always had a little bit of attitude, but now, it was more then that. A transformation from human to werewolf almost always increases aggression among other things, and in the past few days, that had shown itself in Sarah's personality.

Sarah held her ground, and I heard her mother say: "let them be together Eric. I've been reading up on wolves, and they only have one mate for their entire life. I don't want Sarah to lose the possibility of having children. I don't know what sort of children she might have, but I still want that hope."

"Catharine," her father said. "How can you forgive him after what he did to our daughter!?"

"I don't, but I just accept the fact that this is who Sarah wants to live with."

Sarah nodded. "Thanks, Mom. And besides, if anyone's to blame for this, it's me. Bird Dog told me what he was before I was bitten by him, but I still wanted to try and have a relationship with him. When I went for my walk, I saw him in his wolf form and I tried to run. I didn't know any better, and it's an instinct for werewolves: if something runs, chase it and eat it."

"But if that's true," Eric asked. "Then why isn't--?"

"I stopped before I killed Sarah, but I knew it was too late. When I saw what I had just done, I couldn't bring myself to kill her. But Sarah's right, I attacked purely by instinct."

Eric glared at me with pure hatred in his eyes, but that ebbed away a few seconds later and he said: "All right, Sarah, I approve your choice of a husband," he pointed towards me. "But that doesn't mean that I have to forgive you for what you did."

Sarah hugged both her parents, and then went upstairs to pack her stuff. Once she was finished, she came down, and Eric said: "Sarah, I want you to write to us everyday from now on, okay? And when you come home from leave, don't turn into a wolf. If you REALLY need to, then do it in the middle of the night while we're all asleep, okay?"

She nodded, said her goodbyes, then we eventually got back to Stonehaven.


	18. Back to Moscow

Chapter Eighteen

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Otherworld Universe

Stonehaven, Bear Valley

1821 Hours local

When we got back to the Otherworld Universe, I continued my training with Elena. Some of the things she taught me seemed a bit weird at first, but I quickly got used to them. A few times when I was learning how to do the Partial Change, I almost got stuck in-between forms because I let it go on for too long. I got myself out of that mess by just calming down and concentrating.

Elena had told me that I was REALLY lucky. Most werewolves when they get stuck, can't Change back, or continue. I didn't want to ask for examples of what she had seen, so I simply left it at that.

As I was nearly finished my training, a young girl came to Stonehaven. She seemed to know everybody in the Pack, except for Bird Dog and me, and she also wasn't another werewolf. I was getting this scenting thing down pretty well, but this just confused me. Who was she?

I asked Elena and she said that the girl's name was 'Savannah.' Apparently, she was a witch, albeit a young but powerful one. When I asked her about why she was here, she said: "some nutjob's killing supernatural children, especially those that seem to have a link with the Cabals. Paige and Lucas thought it would be best if Savannah stayed here until this thing blew over."

"Why here?" I asked. "There must be other places she can hold up. Moscow, possibly?"

Elena laughed and shook her head. "Aside from you, me and Bird Dog, no Supernaturals have ever been NEAR Moscow. It may be the most secure city in the world, but it's still dangerous. Besides, if Savannah went there, then Paige and Lucas would have to go too. They need to stay and figure out who—or what—is behind this.

"Paige knows the Pack, but only a few other Supernaturals know about us. That comes from living away from the supernatural community."

I nodded, and then left to get something to eat. That was one thing about being a werewolf that I thought I'd never get used to: my appetite. I shook my head, and continued into the kitchen. I was intercepted about half-way by Savannah, who proceeded to follow me.

"Hey," she said. "I thought Elena was the only female werewolf in the world, so what race are you, and what are you doing here?"

"I'm a werewolf too; it's just that I'm new."

She looked at me, as though wanting some proof, so I gave it to her. I Changed my right hand into a paw, and said: "how's this?"

She stared at my paw/hand and I Changed it back to normal again. She kept following me, and started asking a few questions. How I became a werewolf, what my job was, things like that. When I said I was in the Air Force, she started asking things movies like 'Top Gun' and 'Stealth' were like the real thing. Well, I almost laughed hysterically at that.

Those two movies were a COMPLETE fabrication of the true Air Force. (technically, Navy) often times, pilots like me would go in to see those kinds of films as comedies, they were that badly done. It's not that the action bits are made up, those are more or less real, but it's the other things that make those movies so damned funny. Now, without going into all the technical details, let's just say that those movies to a fighter pilot are simply NOT real.

After I managed to get a hold of myself, I took Savannah through a typical day in my line of work. Once I was finished, she said something about false advertising, while I made a few sandwiches for myself.

Once I was finished with my training, the Pack went to help out Paige and Lucas, while Bird Dog and I went back to Moscow. Almost as soon as we got back, we were immediately called to meet with the Supreme Commander. I felt the blood drain from my face. What did we do wrong? Well, whatever it was, it was BIG. The Supreme Commander doesn't just call you up to his office to have a little chat. If he chats with ANYONE, it's to his superior: Premier Alexander Romanov.

We walked to his office, and we were let in by the Commander's personal Aide. He looked up from his paperwork, and offered us a seat, and a cigar. Cuban, from the looks of it. Neither Bird Dog nor I smoked, so we politely declined, and sat down.

"So," he began his voice cold. "where have the two of you been for the past few weeks?"

"Commander, if I may," Bird Dog said. "After I bit Sarah, she was taken--."

"Yes, yes, I know that." He snapped. "But that's not what I asked. I asked where the two of you went for the past few weeks."

We both explained where we went and what had when we were finished, the Commander leaned back in his leather-backed chair and said: "very well, I'll look into this other Pack immediately. In the meantime, the two of you are to report to the Replacement Air Group. Once you finish up there, you will go back on active combat status with compensation for the days you missed. For you, Captain Roy, I'll put you as being away for 'psychological reasons', and you, Lieutenant Commander, I'll have you being away for medical and psychological reasons. Is that clear?"

We both nodded, and he shooed us from his office.

As we re-learned how to dogfight, two new aviators came into the Schnee Squadron. There callsigns where 'She-Wolf' and 'Coyote'. Don't ask me who came up with either of them, I don't know.

Eventually, I saw the two newbies in the hallway while I was on the way to the Mess Hall. It was Clay and Elena, and they where both wearing flight suits like me, but instead of the Yellow Squadron insignia, they had the Schnee Squadron Emblem. I intercepted them, and asked: "Hey Clayton, Elena, what are you two doing here?"

Clay was silent, Elena said: "I wanted to join the Air Force, but Clay refused to let me go alone. He didn't want to actually do any flying, so he's just going to be my backseater."

I cocked my head. "You wanted to join? You sure Jeremy didn't ORDER you to do it so that me or Bird Dog wouldn't make a mistake and bite someone else?"

She nodded. "Yeah… although, it's not that the Pack doesn't trust you, we do, and it's just you can't be too careful. We'll just be there to watch your back and make sure you don't do anything stupid."

I groaned. I already had enough people breathing down my back without the Pack doing so too. I had the AWACS, the Squadron CO, Air Force General Malcolm Granger, the Erusian High Command, the ISAF High Command, and the Supreme Commander all keeping a close watch on my Squadron. Well… that couldn't be helped. I suppose I could gripe to my superiors, but that was about the best I could do.

Well, that's military life you. You HAVE to follow orders, but that doesn't mean you can't COMPLAIN about them.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Vladimir Air Force Base

1235 Hours Local

the next day, Sarah told me about who the new pilots were, and why they were here. I sighed, but there was nothing I could do, except of course gripe to the Squadron CO, but there was no time for that right then. We were going on our first mission in a long time. The mission: attack and destroy any 'enemy' aircraft that enters our airspace. We'd be going against a few pilots who I knew personally. Mostly the Mercenary-Style Ace Squadrons (consisting of Rot and Swarche.) but we'd also be facing off against Mobius 1. before we took off, I called the dibs to be the one to attack him. I waited for this moment ever since I heard about him in the Continental War, but I didn't get a chance to actually FACE him.

Due to some bad luck, I wound up going against the Supreme Commander and defected to ISAF, and after that, I went against other former members of Yellow Squadron that were defending Megalith, a massive missile launch facility, that Mobius 1 had destroyed single-handedly.

I knew Mobius 1 was good, and I knew that, if anything, I had become a better pilot after the bite, so I had a feeling that I'd win if we ever fought.

We all got into our respective planes and took off for the Ural Mountains, the place where we'd have our little mission. Me and Sarah were flying our usual Su-37 'Terminators', while Elena and Clay where flying one F-14 'Tomcat'.

I smiled to myself behind my oxygen mask at the heap that the two of them were flying. The F-14 might have been good back in its day, but that day was years ago. now, it was an outdated but still deadly plane, even though it was soon going to be replaced by the more powerful F/A-18E 'Super Hornets' and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Although, some pilots still flew that plane, mostly because of its power and reputation I guess. the squadrons that flew it were the Schnee Squadron, and the Razgriz Squadron lead by the legendary pilot Blaze.

Anyways, once we got over the target area, we waited until I could hear the AWACS. It seemed that for this mission, we had been paired up with the motermouth Sky Eye. Oh joy… this was going to be fun. Almost everyone in the base hated the fact that he almost never shut up.

"All aircraft, you have entered the target area. Stand by to engage and destroy any enemy aircraft. Reinforcements are unavailable, and we cannot authorize a retreat. Intercept them!"

see what I mean? He doesn't shut up. Anyways, I took a look on my radar, and saw four solid enemy radar contacts, and one that faded in and out.

"Yellow 13, to Schnee 6," I said, referring to Elena and Clay. "Clay, do you see that? Looks like Mobius 1's here. that contact that keeps disappearing on you? That's a stealth contact."

"Got it," he said. "So what do we do?"

"Attack the solid contacts, I'll handle Mobius. You won't last a chance against him, Elena. Trust me." I replied.

Elena reluctantly accepted, and turned to engage the four members of Rot Squadron. Sarah went in to engage first, being the more experienced pilot, and she shot down one member with her first pass.

I pulled my attention away from her, and went to engage one of the greatest aces of all time: Mobius 1. I saw his plane a few seconds later: a sleek blue-grey F-22A 'Raptor'. I set the radio channel to the standard channel so I could hear every piece of radio chatter there was to hear.

"Well, well, well, Yellow 13. looks like now we find out who's number one!" he said.

"Roger that," I replied. "Good luck, you'll need it."

and then we started to attack each other, knowing that we'd both make it back to base all right, but only one would land in a plane. The other would be picked up by a rescue helicopter.


	19. Warpping up loose ends

Chapter nineteen

Elena Michaels

Ural Mountains Airspace

1243 Hours Local

"Hey, Elena," I heard Sarah say over the radio. "I'll take down the first two, to show you how it's done, okay? After that… well, let's have a competition for kill scores!"

I grinned behind my oxygen mask and said: "You're on, Sarah. What are the stakes?"

"Winner's choice,"

I was grinning when I saw the first batch of four enemy planes. Clay triggered the radar lock on all of them, and just before I fired the Long-Range Missiles, I heard: "Rot 1 to all craft, time to hunt some wild dogs! Down 'em all!"

Wild dogs? I thought. Well, I'd show them! Even if they where a bit right… anyways, Sarah got ahead of me, and fired off two sets of missiles from short range. One of the two planes tried to turn away, but he was too slow and the missile went right into his front air intake before exploding INSIDE his engine.

"Ohh," Clay said from the backseat. "That CAN'T be good for you."

I watched as Sarah took on another plane, and fired off another missile, followed by a burst of the machine gun. The missile missed completely, but because of the way the enemy plane had turned, he had unwittingly put himself square-on in Sarah's gun sights. The machine gun ripped through the enemy fighter like a hot knife through butter, and sent it spiralling out of control towards the ground.

I now joined in the fray, and Clay picked out one of the two remaining enemy planes. I launched a Long-Range Missile at him, and held him in my radar lock. He tried to twist away, and lose my lock, but kept with his turns, and a few seconds later, my missile impacted the target, and he started to dip down, losing altitude, but not completely dive-bombing.

"I've been hit!" the enemy captain called out. "That low-life DOG!!" I went onto the next enemy plane, got onto his tail, and kept with his turns until I had the perfect position. When I had that, I fired! The two short-range missiles blasted away from my plane like a weapon possessed and steered straight into the enemy plane's twin tailpipes.

The explosion was so fast; I almost missed it when I blinked. When the fire and smoke from the missile cleared, I saw that my target was trailing fire, NOT a good sign for an aircraft. The ejector seat fired a few seconds before the plane disintegrated in a black and orange fireball.

Well, that was one squadron down, one to go, not including that 'Mobius 1' guy. I checked my radar to see how Bird Dog was doing against him anyways.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Mobius 1 had a slightly annoying habit: when you where coming head-on with him, he NEVER gave you a break. He kept launching his Raptors' Long-Range Missiles and he NEVER let up on you even after you passed him.

I activated the slight radar jamming that my SU-37 had, and started pulling a few hard manoeuvres to break the missile's radar lock. It worked, but he fired off another salvo of missiles at me.

"Oh, screw this!" I yelled and I launched all of my Long-Range missiles, and then evaded his salvo. I looked at my radar as soon as I was clear of his missiles to see that none of my missiles had hit him.

That was good: I wanted a challenge. I wanted the chance to push the very limits of my personal skill, and still have an enemy that can stand up to that. I never had that before, and, aside from the almost mock dogfights that Air Force pilots and Navel aviators participate in on almost daily bases, I thought I would never get that chance.

We now closed on each other, and I pulled hard up, standing the Terminator on its tail, then bringing its nose down sharply in a manoeuvre known as the 'Cobra'. Mobius, unprepared for the move, flashed past and I did a full 180 degree turn that brought me right back in the direction I came, and right behind the Raptor.

Mobius 1 however was not stupid. He realised his mistake, and started turning hard to correct it, but I was staying glued in tight. As he pulled extremely sharp turns, I followed him, in perfect synchronization, not even being thrown off for a single second. The G-Force reading was spiking now, well outside the maximum a human body could take, and the warning alarms started going off inside the cockpit, but I didn't feel them as much as I should have.

Now, being from a version of Earth that has higher gravity, it's only natural that I was able to take more G-Forces then almost everybody else in that universe, and the same was true with Mobius, so we had the G-Force alarms set to the point where WE'D black out, (Roughly around eight to ten Gs.) and then warn us when we approached that limit.

However, being a werewolf seemed to INCREASE my tolerance to G-Forces, and thus allow me to make tighter and faster turns without blacking out, so long as the plane could pull off those manoeuvres.

I knew exactly how much stress the Su-37 could take, as well as how much stress the Raptor could take. Both were about equal as they had been developed at roughly the same time, and were designed to be the counter to the other one. Both planes were State-of-the-art, and as such had incredible performance characteristics, but the Raptor tended to favour more along the lines or firepower, and stability while the Terminator focused more on Speed, manoeuvrability, and defence.

I reviewed all this in my head in under two milliseconds, and I got fired on Mobius 1!

Sarah 'Tomboy' Nakano

Once the four members of Rot Squadron were shot down, eight more radar contacts showed up on my radar. This was Swarche Squadron, one of the most feared squadrons around for their tactics: Assassination with high speed, and good cover. Often times, the poor bastard on the receiving end of this squadron never knew what hit him.

Wanting more clarification, I said: "That lead plane… is that The Vulture?"

The AWACS answered my question. "All planes, be advised, Swarche Squadron has entered the local Airspace, repeat: Swarche Squadron has entered the local airspace. Engage, and destroy."

Oh, just shut up… I thought. The AWACS Sky Eye just NEVER shut up! Personally, I preferred Thunderhead, but there was nothing I could do.

Elena and I merged together and we both launched out Long Range missiles at the approaching enemy planes. Or, well, I launched mine, and Clay fired off the missiles on Elena's plane. Two-seater planes are like that: the pilot does most of the work, but sometimes the backseater can fire off a few missiles.

Anyways, the missiles blasted off our wings, and steered themselves head-on to the approaching enemy planes. Four of the eight missiles hit and lightly damaged the approaching enemy planes, and I let out a curse. I had forgotten that the MiG-31 was a ruggedly built fighter, as it had to be to withstand the speeds it flew at, and because of that, the missiles only did moderate damage to the enemy interceptors.

Then, they were within firing range for their own short-range missiles! DAMN! I had also forgotten about the 31's incredibly speed as one of the fastest planes in the world. As soon as I had a lock on one of the enemy planes, I launched my missiles, but he failed to launch his.

That was a downside to the MiG-31: because of its extremely high speed and relatively low manoeuvrability, it was almost impossible to use it in a dogfight unless you had extremely good reaction times and A LOT of experience in that plane.

The fighters flashed past us, and started to come around for a pass behind us, trying to line up a shot before we could turn around and fight them. It almost worked for Elena because she was new, and as such had no idea how to counter manoeuvres, and because she was in an F-14.

I finished turning around, and when I did, I fired off two missiles and pulled hard to the right. An enemy plane pulled left, and I found myself almost about to crash into the maniac! I corrected my turn to avoid a mid-air collision, but in doing so, I presented another enemy plane with a perfect shot.

Pulling hard left to avoid the enemy, I was about to fire on another enemy plane when suddenly the enemy plane behind me suddenly exploded in a fireball! I looked behind me, and I saw that Elena had managed to pull off a shot on the plane that was tailing me. I must have been, unknowingly, pulling the enemy pilot into the perfect firing position for Elena while he searched for that position on me.

Saying nothing about it, Elena turned her plane to engage another enemy that was trying to attack her. I did the same thing, making a mental note to myself to buy her and Clay a drink when we got back.

Captain 'Bird Dog' Roy

Mobius 1 was not letting himself get shot down. He kept pulling hard turns and even harder manoeuvres trying to throw me off, but I anticipated each one of his breaks. I couldn't fire though. Because of his hard turns, I couldn't launch my missiles and hope for a hit because they'd simply lose their target and I'd have to lock on again.

About three minuets since the one-on-one dogfight started, I suddenly lost sight of Mobius, and I heard the high-pitched tone of a missile alert shrieking over the radio. DAMN! Now I was the one in a disadvantage! He must have done some sort of thrust vectoring that put me in the front position!

I tried to copy that, but the problem was that I had no idea what he did! Grimly, I hit the manual override and swung my twin thrust vectoring engine nozzles as far as they would go, mimicking the Harrier's tactic known as 'VIFFing' the acronym stood for 'Vectoring In Forward Flight' and it was one of the hardest manoeuvres in the book to pull off in anything other then planes that had V/STOL (Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing) capabilities.

Somehow, it worked, and I almost seemed to stop in mid-air, then I started to actually fly backwards and up! Mobius flashed past me, and I fired everything I had. His plane for a moment took the hailstorm of bullets and missiles I sent out, but eventually I saw the ejection seat fire and then the Raptor exploded into debris, shrapnel and fire. The weapons he was carrying exploded a few milliseconds later, in a far more powerful secondary explosion that rocked my aircraft wildly as I flew right through it.

The shrapnel pinged and rattled the skin of my aircraft, and then seconds later, I was through the world of flame and smoke into the open blue sky. I checked for a parachute, and I saw one with the ISAF logo on it. As he descended, I heard: "Wow, Bird Dog, you've gotten better. You gotta teach me how to do that sometime."

Elena Michaels

The air battle was short, hard and almost anticlimactic when Bird Dog came in after shooting down Mobius 1. Swarche Squadron never really had a chance as one by one, we shot them all down.

I had managed to get three of them. Sarah got four, and Bird Dog got one. I suspected that he was mostly pulling the enemy planes into position, but for now, my ego was happy with believing that he just didn't get that many kills.

We landed back at the base, and we all took a rest. If this was how an air battle ALWAYS was, then really wanted to be on the front lines of it. When I asked Bird Dog about it, he said: "Being a fighter pilot in combat is probably one of the best jobs in the world. The pure rush that comes from the adrenalin and the speed has no equivalent in civilian life… other then possibly bungee jumping."

Supreme Commander Romanov

The Kremlin, Moscow

2134 Hours Local

The various paper work forms had been pilling up in my office for the entire day, and I had filled them all out, all except one. This form was essentially a report of the gains and losses from the Otherworld Universe.

We were almost finished mopping up the Yeerk activity there, so it was a perfect time to fill out the form. Tapping the pen I was holding on the desk, I thought of what we had lost, other then a few pieces of hardware, and money, nothing that I could think of offhand. I went on to what we had gained: new pilots, potential new allies, and some kind of artefact fragment.

After filling out the form, I went into one of the KGB's Archives, and looked at the new piece of… whatever it was that we had bought off Jeremy Danvers. It was a dark green colour and it had several obscure markings on it. It also seemed to be made of a lightweight rock-like substance that had the same hardness as diamond. The KGB tried to translate it, but without all of the fragments, we couldn't be sure.

Holding the newly acquired piece with the one we had in our archives, I noticed something interesting: when I put the two of them together, it seemed like they formed the handle for a sword of some kind. But what kind of sword would be made out of rock?

Another strange thing about the two artefacts was that they were both extremely lightweight, almost weightless, that and when I held them, I felt as though they were MINE, but in more ways then just mere ownership. I can't put what exactly I was feeling into words, but what I DID know was that I had to find the other pieces of this and figure out what it was.

To be continued in "Operation: Battle Axe"


End file.
